


Verus Amor

by Fandom_Trash_13



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Handon were never a ting they're only friends even though landon isn't really mentioned, Honestly there's a few points ive just kinda tossed canon out the window, I think this counts as a slowburn, Just be patient trust me, Soulmate AU, Soulmates can sense each others emotions, The main 6 arent straight because screw canon, also MG AND JOSIE ARE FRIENDS THAT ACTUALLY SPEND TIME TOGETHER, set after 1x14, theres a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 23,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23566129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandom_Trash_13/pseuds/Fandom_Trash_13
Summary: When you get to know someone, it's easy to tell how they feel with a simple look.Soulmates however. Now they can sense how their true love feels even when one is in Mystic Falls and the other in Belgium.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Lizzie Saltzman (background), Penelope Park/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 53
Kudos: 376





	1. A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

It's been one month since Penelope Park left the Salvatore Boarding School. Nothing around the school seems much different. Without Penelope acting as confident leader, her little group have sunk into the background.

If anything the school seems almost too quiet. 

Malivore seems to have stopped spitting out monsters, nobody can figure out why. Nobody is pulling many pranks anymore. Everyone, for the most part, behaves in class. An uncomfortable tension constantly hangs in their air, it's barely noticeable but it's there none the less.

It's almost like everyone is waiting for something to go wrong.

Some students however, have managed to get their days back to as normal as possible. Josie and MG are two of those students.

They are in what was once Penelope's room, unpacking the last of Josie's things. Once Lizzie and Hope found out they were soulmates, they wanted to share a room. So what better time for Josie to finally move into a room of her own. 

Josie is attempting to sort out a box of random odds and ends, putting all unecessary items into another box. The box is half full of old toys she doesn't want to get rid of yet, along with books MG finds in the box he's sorting that she loved as a kid but isn't interested in as much anymore.

"Hey look at this!" Josie says holding up a beaten up teddy bear. "My aunt Bonnie gave Lizzie and I matching bears for our seventh birthday. I thought Iost this little guy years ago." She says excitedly.

"What did you do to him?" MG says, pointing to the bears half torn up arm and hanging out eye.

"Loved him...maybe a little too much." 

"You should fix him back up. You done a perfect job with my Stallions t-shirt after Dina 'accidentally' ripped it, a bear should be easy."

"What do you think Mr Bear, we gonna get you cleaned up?" Josie begins talking to the bear.

"Mr Bear?"

"Hey! I was seven!" Josie laughs.

MG holds up his hands as a surrender of sorts as Josie places the bear on her desk to fix up later. MG goes back to sorting books, when he comes across an unusual looking notebook.

"Is this Penelope's hand writing?" MG asks holding up what Josie instantly recognizes as Penelope's spying notebook.

"Uh yeah. She gave me that the night she left." 

MG gestures it between the shelf and box of extra stuff, not entirely sure where to put it. But instead of giving an answer, Josie silently takes the notebook from him.

She lightly runs her fingers over the rough leather, trying to block out the memories of that night. Penelope telling her that she could've made her stay, kissing her one last time, and saying I love you. Josie hadn't told anyone else about the I love you, she's tried to ignore it for the longest time herself. Anyone else knowing would just lead to too many questions. She doesn't want to think about the first time Penelope saying I love you also being on the same night she left.

Deciding she doesn't want to think about anything to do Penelope right now, she lightly tosses the notebook into the box of random stuff. But as she throws it, a picture of her and Penelope falls out and lands picture side up on the floor.

Josie stares at the picture for a moment before hesitantly picking it up.

She backs up and sits on the bed, not taking her eyes off the picture. It's one of her favourite pictures. Penelope lying almost completely on top of her on the floor after they attempted to pull an all nighter studying. She'll never forget how much pain she woke up in, floors are definitely not comfortable to sleep on, but the weight of Penelope laying on her back with her arms around her waist was one of the most amazing things. Lizzie laughing at the sight of them after taking the picture is what woke them both up that morning.

The bed dips slightly as MG sits down, making Josie flinch. She almost forgot he was in the room

"I shouldn't miss her but..."

"But you do." 

"I could've got her to stay. It's my fault she's gone. And now? Well now I'll probably never see her again." 

MG almost wants to break his promise to Penelope. He wants to tell Josie that her and Penelope are soulmates. He wants to tell her that it's guaranteed they'll see each other again. But he promised Penelope he wouldn't say anything. Penelope was worried knowing they are soulmates would influence Josie's actions. Maybe for better, maybe for worse. Either way Penelope wants Josie to make her own decisions as uninfluenced as possible.

Josie puts the picture on her bedside table before burying her face in her hands. MG wraps his arm around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her.

"What am I gonna do? No matter how hard I try I can't stop thinking about her," she sighs deeply, "I don't even know if I want to stop thinking about her. Even when she probably hasn't thought about me much since she left."

"Jo. She loves you. You're probably taking up at least half of her thoughts." 

Josie gives him a confused look. Did Penelope really talk about her to MG?

"You think I don't know? On her last day, when she asked to replace me as your escort her exact words were "I just want to spend one last day with the girl I love." and of course I couldn't say no to love." MG says with a soft smile.

Since that night there had been the constant nagging thought that Penelope only told Josie she loved her for some reason she can't figure out, not that she actually meant it. But now Josie knows it was real. Penelope loves her. Penelope Park truly loves her.

Josie doesn't get a chance to say anything before a wave of almost overwhelming emotions come crashing down on her, leaving her breathless.

Fear. Anger. Sadness. Out of nowhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay short starting chapter! But chapters do get longer, so far i have up to chapter 10 planned and currently just started writing 3. Aiming for weekly updates, as long as writers block doesn't hit me too hard again.


	2. Soulmates and Shenanigans

Four days. Four Days. Josie has been going through a whirlwind of emotions that hit her out of nowhere. She has barely left her bed, not for class, not for meals, not for anything. 

MG told Hope and Lizzie about what happened to Josie. They both have a theory about what happened to her, but decide to keep it to themselves for the time being incase they are wrong. Per Josie's request, MG hasn't told her dad. But he told her that he would have to tell an adult if she didn't start going to class and eating again. There's only so long he can lie and tell teachers Josie is just sick.

But after two more and Josie's emotions only seeming to get drastically worse, MG finally convinced her to allow him to tell Emma. Who better to handle overwhelming emotions than the school therapist.

MG walks into Josie's room without even knocking, closely followed by Emma. Emma gets along well with alot of the students, especially Josie, and it hurts to see the way Josie is now. Curled up in bed, blanket pulled up to her cheek, looking both exhausted and desperate for answers.

Josie sits up when they come in, but still keeps the blanket wrapped tightly around her. When MG sits beside her, she quickly curls up beside him and holds onto his arm.

Emma pulls over a desk chair and sits infront of them. She starts by asking how Josie feels now, but the only answer she gets is a shrug. She isn't surprused, one thing Emma quickly learned about Josie is she doesn't speak alot when she's upset.  
Not wanting to put too much pressure on Josie to talk when she doesn't want to, Emma turns to MG and asks him to tell her what they were doing when all the emotions hit.

He gives her a quick summary, explaining that they found a picture of Josie and Penelope and Josie began really missing her all over again. 

Emma notices a picture sitting on the bedside table and asks if that's the picture they found. A single nod from Josie. Emma then asks if she can see it, so Josie silently hands it to her.

She examines the picture then thinks for a moment before asking how Josie felt about Penelope before she left.

"When we were together I was falling in love with her. But then everything happened and I don't know what I felt after that." Josie answers quietly.

Emma is surprised at getting more than a one sentence answer, but progress is progress.

"Did you ever stop falling in love with her?"

Josie goes back to being silent and gives a shrug in response.

"I think I know what's going on. And I'm afraid it's an answer you may not like." Emma warns.

She notices Josie grip tighter to MG's arm and decides to get straight to the point and hopefully avoid torturing Josie with a long drawn out answer.

"I think, you and Penelope are soulmates." She states simply.

Josie's eyes go wide, Emma can see a million thoughts and questions going through the young witches mind. 

"I thought soulmates were rare?" MG chimes in.

"They are, that's why we don't teach much about them here. It's difficult to understand the specifics of a soulmate bond due to the rarity. But I know enough to hopefully give you the answers you're looking for." 

"So why have Josie's emotions been so bad?" MG asks.

"Well. I assume the emotions have been so overwhelming because her mind isn't used to it all and isn't able to differentiate between her own emotions and Penelope's. Therefore whatever negative emotions she is feeling from Penelope are influencing her own." Emma explains, quickly noticing worry spreading across Josie's face. "But with practice, things will get easier. Hope and Lizzie got the hang of it quickly by working together, but with Penelope in Belgium it may be more dificult. Things will get easier though, I promise." She reassures.

"Why now?" Josie asks.

"You have to be in love with your soulmate for you to be able to sense their emotions. Maybe consiously in love, maybe not. For your sister and Hope, neither of them were aware they loved each other and it happened."

"I wonder if Penelope knows?" Josie thinks out loud.

MG once again has to bite his tongue and not break his promise to Penelope. But before he can accidentally let anything slip, Emma answers.

"The way she talked about you, right up until the day she left, I would not be surprised if she knew." She says with a soft smile.

Before anymore can be said a magic note flies underneath the door and lands in Emma's hand. She quickly scans it then says she has to leave. Apparently one of the wolves flipped out and she's the best at calming them down. She leaves Josie with a few sheets of paper she printed out explaining everything known about soulmates before excusing herself, leaving Josie with MG and her thoughts.

"How do you feel?" MG asks.

"Exhausted." 

MG gets Josie to lie back down before laying beside her, within seconds Josie is once again curled up at his side with her head on his shoulder. It doesn't take Josie long to fall asleep. MG decides if Josie is asleep then there's no harm in having a nap himself.

An hour or so passes before a knock at the door wakes them both up. MG listens for voices to see if he can figure out who is at the door, he immediatly hears the unmistakable complaining of Lizzie.

After checking with Josie that it's okay, he shouts for her to come in. 

"Our hands are full! Can you open it for us?" Hope's voice carrying easily through the door.

Without saying a word, Josie siphons a little magic from MG and magically opens the door. 

In comes Lizzie carrying a tray of drinks, and Hope with tray of snacks piled in such a way she can barely see over them.

"You are not mising our weekly movie night." Lizzie says putting the drinks on the bedside table.

"What she means is, we think this might take your mind off your emotions." Hope says.

Josie and MG sit up and attempt to wake up enough to stay awake through movie night while Lizzie plugs in Josie's tv.

Hope gestures for Josie and MG to budge over before clmbing under the covers, closely followed by Lizzie who makes herself comfortable cuddled right up against Hope's side.

"So what are we watching?" Lizzie asks.

"I have the perfect idea!" MG says taking the remote from Lizzie and flicking through netlfix to find the movie he has in mind.

"Of course you choose a superhero movie." Hope laughs when he presses play on Power Rangers.

"Okay who's prettier. Me, Naomi Scott or Becky G?" Lizzie asks Hope.

"Careful what you answer." Josie chimes in, trying to enjoy herself.

They manage to settle down enough to make it through the movie. All of them crack a joke now and again and Josie actually has fun. The weight of her emotions stop her from being completely happy, but this is the most fun she's had in four days.

"Okay what next?" Hope asks. 

"Harry Potter? I'm in the mood to pick at magic logic in movies." Lizzie says taking the remote and searches for the Philosophers Stone.

"Hey! Harry Potter is perfection!" Josie says getting jokingly defensive.

The twins get into a playful argument over it for a few minutes. Until Hope decides she doesn't want to be literally in the middle of it and puts her hands over both their mouths.

Hope finds out the hard way that they both think alike in some ways when they both lick her hand at the same time. While MG bursts out laughing, Hope wipes her hands on each twin very much regretting her decision.

"Just play the movie." Hope grumbles trying to hide a smile.

Lizzie turns back towards the TV with a playful smug grin and hits play. Josie shimmies back into her pillow and rests her head on Hope's shoulder, trapping the tribrid in a Saltzman twin sandwich.

Getting through Harry Potter doesn't go nearly as smoothly as Power Rangers. They pause it what seems like every 10 minutes for the twins to argue over logic, while Hope and MG share amused glances. But eventually they make it to the end.

MG decides to leave before it gets too late because he's already tired but has homework due the next day. He says his goodbyes, complete with getting squashed by the three girls in a group hug, before leaving just as another Harry Potter argument breaks out.

Hope doesn't know how long the argument goes on for. If she's being honest, she zoned out after a few minutes and doesn't even know what's going on. Finally though. Finally the twins decide to just agree to disagree and leave it at that.

"How do you feel?" Hope asks Josie.

"Better. My emotions, and apparently Penelope's, are still crushing my mind. But tonight has definitely helped." Josie says with a soft smile. "How was it for you two when all the emotions happened?"

"Well..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just thought I'd give y'all some happiness before everything! Next chapter is Hizzies chapter and all ima say is it is giving me hell, but i love it! (i can't say too much without spoiling anything) 
> 
> Thursday nights are update nights!! So cya next week! 
> 
> My tumblr is @ just-a-dumb-gay where it's just a mess of fandom and writing related stuff, just in case anyone is interested!


	3. Hizzie's Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few sections of this were written when I was lowkey sick at the weekend so apologies for spelling mistakes or repeat phrases or just generally dumb sentences, I did proof read this but something probably slipped through.

Miss Mystic Falls. One of the biggest moments of the year in the small town. And it's not even noon and already every plan Lizzie has had completely went to hell. But now, as she sees Hope standing in her mothers dress, she thinks maybe having to drop out wasn't so bad.

"You look beautiful!" Lizzie says making Hope spin for her.

"Are you sure you don't mind me wearing your moms dress?"

"It almost looks better on you than it would on me. Almost."

Hope rolls her eyes and decides to ignore the comment. 

As Lizzie magically makes a couple minor changes to the dress she begins feeling an unusual worry take over her mind. Or maybe it's nervousness? She can't quite tell.

But whatever it is threatens to throw all her thoughts and emotions more out of balance than they already are.

"Not today. This is not happening." She internally tells herself.

With alot of effort she manages to push her emotions down enough to focus on Hope. Miss Mystic Falls, where there's many normal people around, is no time for one of her outbursts. 

The rest of the day flies by and it's finally time for the main event. The dance. But of course something else just has to go wrong. 

Lizzie is standing in the crowd watching Hope and Landon argue. Hope is about to be called and Lizzie has to hold back the urge to just give up any hope of there being a win for the Salvatore Boarding School as she watches the mop head walk away.

She feels her stress building, along with the same panic she felt earlier in the day. She still can't figure out why she's panicking, and it's close to getting the better of her.

She keeps telling herself that she can't have one of her meltdowns now, not with so many normal people around and definitely not with Hope already struggling to contain her emotions.

The panic dissapears slightly as Roman appears at Hope's side. Lizzie does her best to push down the rest of the unusual overload of emotions as she watches Hope descend the stairs looking absolutely magnificent. And not that she'll say this out loud, she definitely thinks Roman looks better for this than Landon.

The dance begins and just as all seems to be going smoothly, Josie comes over and begins arguing with her. Lizzie doesn't understand how the argument goes from Penelope to Hope's dress, but she doesn't care as she feels countless unfamiliar emotions rising in her chest just after Josie tells her who their mothers dress is from.

Next thing she knows, the chandeliers begin to shake and everyone is starting to get suspicious as they notice it and Hope's unusally emotional response to winning.

Pushing through the crowd, Lizzie quickly hugs Hope while trying to act as natural as possible and not like Hope could shatter every piece of glass in the room within seconds.

As Lizzie hugs her, her thoughts immediatly come back to earth. 

"Just let it out. The real way. The way you needed to all along." Lizzie whispers tightning her grip. 

Every sound becomes mearly background whispers, her vision becomes blurred, and every emotion she's been suppresing comes bursting to the surface.

The guilt over her parents. The lonliness of always pushing people away. Among so many other things she's been trying to ignore for the longest time.

When Lizzie notices everyone begin whispering and staring she quickly leads Hope outside away from all the attention. The cold night air goes straight through them but they've both got more important things to focus on.

Hope is visibly shaking and having a difficult time keeping her emotions in control. And despite Lizzie seeming to have the same problem, she forces herself to push through and calm down Hope first.

"Hey! Look at me," Lizzie cups Hope's cheek gently and turns her to face her. "You gotta breathe. Think you can do that for me?"

Lizzie manages to get Hope to mimic her breathing and calm her down slightly. It breaks Lizzie's heart seeing years worth of pain flood Hope's eyes, and she'll be damned if she isn't going to do everything in her power to help.

Although unfortunately she doesn't know what she could do. So with no other ideas, Lizzie wraps Hope in a hug once again. Much to Lizzie's surprise, she feels Hope hide her face against her neck.

Finally Hope's breathing evens out and Lizzie can no longer almost hear Hope's and her own heart pounding. Hope's thoughts and emotions are just a blur at this point, it's impossible to pick out anything specific. 

Lizzie seems to be able to read her mind and decides to get Hope to try the 5 4 3 2 1 method of calming down that Emma often suggets she try to calm down.

"Okay, let's see if this works. Five things you can see?"

Hope looks around uncertainly, trying to focus her vision through tears.

"You, the lake, trees, plants and the lights from inside." Hope lists in a shaky voice.

"Tress and plants are technically the same thing, but I''ll give you it," Lizzie attempts to lighten the mood. "Now four things you can touch?

"Again, you," Hope says lightly squeezing Lizzie's hand, "My dress, this plant, my hair."

"You're doing well. Three things you can hear?" 

"You...again, the wind and everyone inside." Hope visibly begins to calm down.

"Nearly there. Two things you can smell."

The first thing that comes to mind is the comforting familiar smell of Lizzie's perfume, but she decides not to use Lizzie as an answer again. "The woods and the lake."

"Last one. One thing you can taste?"

"Whatever that horrible non alchoholic wine that's being served is." Hoep says sticking her toungue out in disgust.

Lizzie laughs quietly but she has to agree, real wine is far better. 

"How do you feel?"

Hope simply shrugs but Lizzie can see she's feeling better. Her breathing has calmed down and she's stopped crying

"Do you wanna go back inside? Get tonight over with?"

Hope mumbles that she wants a few more minutes before taking a few more deep breaths to stop her emotions overwhelming her again.

Lizzie is surprised at how well she's been doing controlling her own emotions. The whole time she's been feeling like Hope's years worth of pain was dumped on her too. She just assumes the whole night she's been worried about her friend. And the last thing she wants is to ignore Hope's emotions in favour of her own, she doesn't want to be selfish, she's never wanted to be selfish.

Lizzie decides one last short hug won't hurt, and then once Hope is ready they make their way back inside.

The rest of the party is a blur, and as soon as it ends Hope and Lizzie get out of there as quick as they can and head back to Lizzie's room. 

One thing leads to another and they make a pinky promise to help each other out. But not without LIzzie asking why Hope still wants to be friends with the muppet baby.

Once Hope is sure she'll be okay, she says goodnight and goes back to her own room. She somehow manages to ignore the unfamiliar thoughts hanging in the back of her mind just enough to at least get somewhat comfortable before falling asleep.

The next day Hope is called into Emma's office to discuss her emotional outburst. 

The conversation goes exactly as Hope expected; A whole bunch of questions she doesn't know how to answer. 

10 miunte turns into 30 minutes which eventually turns into an hour. And finally the conversation nears it's end. 

"Is there anything else I should know or you want me to know about last night?" Emma asks.

Hope has two options. The first is just say everything is fine and get out of here as quick as possible. And the second is mention one other thing that's been on her mind, and be stuck here for she dreads to think how much longer.

She decides to go with the latter. Emma already knows pretty much every other major thing about her, what's one more.

Without going into to much detail, Hope explains that she had a strong sense of worry. Or Concern. Amongst her other emotions it was hard to figure out something specific. But whatever it was felt extremely out of place mixed with everything else.

Emma thinks for a moment, she looks like she has an idea but decides to keep it to herself. She decides to tell Hope she'll do some research becuase she can't think of an explanation off the top of her head. She hates lying to students, but after the previous night she thinks it better Hope not know what she's thinking just yet.

Hope is finally allowed to leave and as she's walking out she bumps into Lizzie who has to talk about what happened with Josie the previous night.

Lizie's conversation is the same as it always is when she talks to Emma after a fight with Josie. She eventually gets bored and when she gets bored she gets snarky, so to avoid a snarky Lizzie, Emma changes the subject a little quicker than planned. 

She asks about what happened with Hope the previous night and eventually Emma asks Lizzie how she felt while trying to calm Hope down. 

Lizzie hesitates on answering for a second before explaining how she felt like all of Hope's pain had been dropped on her too. "I know, it sounds ridiculous." She says with a sigh.

Emma's reply leaves her speechless. She says that she doesn't think it sounds ridiculous before explaining to Lizzie what she wasn't sure about telling Hope. Soulmates.

The rest of the day goes by normally for Hope. That is until it comes dinner time.

She takes her now usual seat beside Lizzie. But before she even gets to start a conversation, Lizzie excuses herself without so much as glancing her way.

And that's how the next few days go. Unless it's class and they're seated on opposite ends of the room, Lizzie will completely avoid wherever Hope is.

When it comes time for Hope's weekly meeting with Emma that's the first thing she mentions.

"She just completely dodges me. I don't even know what I done wrong. Did I even do anything wrong? Has she decided to just go back to hating me for no reason again?" Hope says, barely taking a breathe.

Emma manages to interrupt Hope's rambling with something Hope never expected to be told at all in her life.

"You and Lizzie are soulmates. At least I am quite confident that you are.

Emma has to hold back a slight laugh as Hope's jaw drops. She's never seen the tribrid this shocked before.

Hope quickly excuses herself, not even bothering to say bye.

She heads to her room first to try and gather her thoughts, without much success. Before she can get too caught up in her mind leading to another breakdown, she decides to just wing it and heads out looking for Lizzie.

She knocks on the door to the twins room and almost instantly Lizzie's voice answers with "Come in."

As soon as Lizzie sees Hope she mumbles out something about having to go and Josie not being here if that's who Hope is looking for. But when she tries to slip out the door past Hope, the tribrid gently grabs her arm to stop her.

"Why have you been dodging me?" She asks getting straight to the point.

"I haven't been dodging you, I've been...busy." Lizzie answers unconvicingly.

Hope does that eyebrow raise thing that Lizzie will never admit to finding incredibly attractive. 

Lizzie would love to be able to just dissapear right now, but Hopes firm yet surprisingly gentle grip on her arm pulling her back into her room says otherwise.

"Does a certain something Emma mentioned about soulmates have anything to do with why you're avoiding me?" Hope asks once the door shut. 

In that moment Hope almosts thinks Lizzie is a statue. If not for Lizzie's short, sharp breaths she migh've actually believed Lizzie had turned to stone.

Whe Lizzie finally finds her voice again, the first thing she asks is "Are you here to tell me it's never gonna happen or something?"

"Actually I'm here so we can talk about it. And maybe ask you out if that's okay with you?" Hope replies with a small smile.

That night Hope decide to take Lizzie down to the docks as some kind of date. Maybe not the most glamerous but since they can't go off campus at night, it's the best they've got. 

Things only get better from there. Dates almost every other night. Lizzie quickly wanting to be public about their relationship, Hope's only condition was they keep PDA to a minimum. 

Hope could swear she heard MG's jaw hit the floor the day they walked into class holding hands, and Josie doing a double take with the most adorable confused look was hilarious.

When Alaric walked into his daughters room and saw them making out neither of them could hold back a laugh at how quickly he left and slammed the door yelling an apology the whole time. Not exactly how either of them had planned on him finding out but there's nothing they could do, other than remember to lock the door next time. Which turns out to be Hope having to push Lizzie off her for a second so she can lock the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I know this is a Posie fic, but I done this because I pretty much drop kicked half of handon canon out the window along with alot 1x14 Hizzie so instead of lengthy flashbacks I just decided a whole chapter explaining Hizzie would be better.   
> -Also ao3 is being an ass when I try to reply to comments, I honestly don't know how many replies have actually been posted. But I am seeing all comments and I appreciate you all!  
> -One last thing, no update next week because life has decided I'm gonna be busy with some other stuff and probably won't have enough time to write a whole chapter.


	4. I Wish You Were Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally proof read this. Absolutely! For sure! Did...not

"Why am I having such a hard time with these emotions when it was so easy for the both of you?" Josie asks, confused.

"Maybe with all our added mental health, it's just became habit to suppress powerful emotions?" Hope takes a guess. 

"Or maybe it's just different for everyone?" Lizzie shrugs.

Josie sighs and buries her face in her hands before saying "Why emotions? Why couldn't soulmates just have matching birth marks or something like that?"

Hope quietly wraps her arm around Josie's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

"Wait. Can Penelope feel this right now?" Josie asks, peaking out from her hand.

"Quite possibly." Hope answers honestly.

Josie sighs again before running her hand through her tangled hair before saying "Can we just watch another movie. I don't want to think about any of this right now."

"Only if I get to brush your hair." Hope says helping untangle Josie's finger. 

Josie agrees and as Lizzie puts on Brave while Hope begins gently trying to untangle Josie's hair.

Half way through the movie Josie has found herself half coccooned in a blanket using Hope's shoulder as a pillow, while Lizzie is fast asleep on Hope's thigh. 

Hope gently pokes Lizzie's back, but gets no reaction.

"I should probably take her back to our room. You okay with calling it a night?" Hope asks.

"Juat careful when you pick her up. She bit me once when i tried to put a blanket over her." Josie warns making Hope quietly laugh.

Once Hope has Lizzie in her arms, Josie magically opens the door for them to leave as they say goodnight.

And just like that Josie is left alone with her thoughts and Brave quietly in the background.

She briefly considers finding a way to contact Penelope. But also, there's every possibility Penelope doesn't want to talk to her and she can't handle anymore heartbreak right now. 

Not bothering to even turn the TV off, she curls up wanting to sleep and just have a chance to block all this out for awhile. 

Eventually she falls asleep. A very restless sleep but it's better than nothing.

The next morning comes all too quickly and she's woken up by a loud bang outside her room followed by laughing. 

"Damn wolves." She thinks pulling her pillow over her head.

For just a short moment she's forgot about everything happening, that is until she hears one of the wolves outside say "I hate you." to another. And everything just comes right back as she remembers when Penelope kissed her on her birthday.

She kicks the blankets off and decides to go to Emma's office with an idea she has that might help.

Thankfully Emma isn't busy and opens the door quickly after Josie knocks.

After some small talk Josie gets to the reason she came here in the first place.

"Can I borrow the prism you use with Lizzie?"

Emma gives her knowing look, Josie just looks away hoping to avoid anymore Penelope questions.

Deciding that Josie is responsible enough to be careful, Emma gives her the prism. Her only two rules are that Josie bring it back to her by dinner time, and they have at least a half hour conversation about what happens.

Josie makes her way back to her room, somehow managing to avoid anyone, all while trying to decide if she even wants to talk to Penelope this way.

Back in her room with the prism on her desk, she paces around trying to gather the courage to be completely sure she wants to do this.

Although it seems her subconscious makes that desicion for her when "Hey Jojo." comes from the bed behind her. 

Josie turns around, and there sitting at the end of the bed looking calm as ever is none other than a perfect hologram of Penelope.

It takes everything in her not to start instantly crying. 

"I'm surprised you wanna talk to me."

"Yeah, me too." Josie says before falling silent, not exactly sure what she even wants to say.

"Anything in particular you want to say or did you just wanna stare at my beautiful self?" Penelope says after a moment.

"Why didn't you just tell me the truth?" Josie asks ignoring Penelope's comment.

"Do you think you could have handled the truth?"

"Well I'd like to hope that if you had just told me, whether I could handle it or not, you would've been there for me." Josie begins unintentionally yelling.

"Do you not think that's what I would've prefered?" Penelope asks, "I didn't want to break up with you, I never wanted to hurt you. But I don't know what other options I had."

"Anything would've been better than dumping me out of no where then moving half way across the world without giving any answers other than a book with everyone's personal thoughts in it."

Penelope doesn't say anything. She just looks at Josie with the same look she always used to on the rare occasions when she lost her temper.

"No. DON'T-" Josie takes a deep breath, "Don't give me that look."

"Hey. Technically I'm you." Penelope holds her hands up in surrender.

Josie turns away from the hologram in an attempt to gather her thoughts.

"Why am I here, Josie?" Penelope asks softly.

"I don't know. I thought maybe talking to you would help. But instead it's just a reminder that you're just half way across the world when I wish you were here."

"Well. Do you want to yell at me some more. Get it all out?"

"I don't know what I want. Okay? And it's not like I can ask you anything because you're me, so!"

Josie gets no reply and turns around to see why. But the hologram is nowhere to be found.

"Great. Just dissapear. Doesn't matter if I was done or not." She yells at nothing.

A knock at the door interrupts her thoughts, and she answers to find a concerned looking MG.

"I heard yelling. Are you okay?" He asks, inviting himself in.

He notices the prism on the desk and gives Josie a questioning look. His answer is a look he's only ever seen Josie use on Hope and Penelope, and it simply means "Shut up."

Sitting on the bed, he gestures for Josie to sit beside him. 

"So what happened?" He asks.

"I got annoyed instantly. I didn't like it. I've never been that angry before, I don't know why I am now." She explains.

"Maybe this anger isn't entirely yours?"

"You think I'm angry because Penelope's angry?"

MG simply nods. 

"But isn't it the middle of the night in Belgium?"

"When have you ever known that girl to sleep at a reasonable time?" MG quietly laughs. But, Josie doesn't even slightly smile.

Josie sighs and falls backwards onto the bed. "I hate this." she mumbles, pulling a pillow over her face.

MG is about to ask if there's anything he can do to help, but Josie screaming into the pillow interrupts him. He just sits patiently waiting for her to finish.

"Okay, I'm good." 

"No you're not." He says standing up and offering his hand to Josie, "We're going to talk to Emma."

Josie is reluctant but she did agree to speak to Emma after she was done with the prism. She considers one more attempt at a conversation with prism Penelope, but if she's got the emotions of herself and her ex to deal with it isn't going to be a very accurate conversation so she decides against it.

Once again Emma answers the door quickly after Josie knocks.

MG wants to stay but Kaleb appears seemingly out of nowhere and tells him the fridge has been stocked with fresh blood. MG wants to be there for his friend, but his vampire urges always force him to go for fresh blood whenever it's there.

Josie understands and gives him a short hug before him and Kaleb vamp speed down the hall and out of sight.

Emma asks all the usual questions, how do you feel, were you able to keep control of your magic, that type of thing. Josie explains how quickly she got angry and Emma says the same thing MG did. That the anger most likely isn't entirely her own.

"How am I suppose to keep control of this? It's bringing back all the pain I felt when Penelope broke up with me and left. And on top of my own emotions I have to deal with hers too?" Josie begins rambling which quickly leads to crying.

Emma wants to call Alaric out the class he's teaching to come and calm Josie down. But Josie would rather not talk to her dad about all this just yet, but Josie allows Emma to call for Lizzie instead.

It takes some time but eventually she manages to calm her sister down enough for her to listen to a few ideas Emma has come up with.

The first thing Emma suggests, that Josie instantly rejects, is that she call Penelope and they talk things out. 

The next idea is that Josie have daily meetings with Emma to go over ways to handle strong emotions and how to keep her magic under control, among other things. Josie isn't keen on the idea of daily meetings, but she also wants the emotions to stop controlling her. And so she agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That section with prism Penelope? Not a single part of it went to plan and I had no idea how to get it back on track


	5. I Miss Her, Alot

\- 2 Emotional Weeks Later -

The daily meetings go near enough exactly how Emma expected. They started off with Josie having a breakdown nearly every day, to eventually learning how to differentiate between her own emotions and Penelope's. 

Hope and Lizzie have also spent some time with Emma and Josie, explaining how things feel for them so there is something to work with when helping Josie.

None of them are experts on soulmates, but with lot of time and practice things do begin getting easier for Josie. There is still bad days, mainly the weekend when she doesn't have a session with Emma. But during those days Hope and Lizzie are more than happy to spend time with her to hopefully prevent her being overwhelmed.

Sometimes Emma even got out the prism, which most of the time ended with Josie crying and either her sister or a friend having to calm her down. The few times they used the prism while Lizzie was in the room always made Hope and Josie laugh afterwards. If looks could kill, Lizzie would've had the hologram long dead.

After the first week Josie was in control of her emotions enough to begin going back to classes. Which was a huge relief because with the emotions overwhelming her she felt weak. Like it would never end. Time and practices is key though, that's what she always had to remind herself of. It wasn't easy, but it worked when she was able to remind herself.

But there's one thing that hasn't changed and doesn't show any signs of changing. She really misses Penelope.

\- Over in Belgium -

Penelope is staring into space, unintentionally ignoring the studying she's supposed to be doing in favor of thinking about none other than Josette Saltzman.

But as quick as she zoned out, she's brought back to earth by a hand waving in front of her face.

"We have half a chapter left to go through. Surely you can get through that without drifting off to whatever is going on up here." Her new friend, and roomate, Riley says poking the side of her head.

Penelope mumbles "Yeah, sorry. Where were we?" as she bats their hand away.

Many more times throughout the studying does Riley have to knock Penelope out of whatever thoughts keep distracting her, but eventually they finish taking note of everything they have to.

They put away their books and get settled on RIley's bed to watch a movie. But before they start RIley asks what keeps distracting Penelope. And for the first time in the 6 weeks she's been here, Penelope finally decides to open up a little more.

"Just. My ex. This girl I was with last year." Penelope says not looking Riley in the eye.

"Oh no. Getting caught up on an ex is never a good thing. How serious were you two?"

"Well. She's my soulmate. Although I doubt she knows it. After everything I done I doubt she'd love me enough to figure it out." she says sadly.

"Oh damn. How long have you known?"

"Long before I broke up with her."

"Hold on. You broke up with your soulmate?! Okay, we're gonna circle back to that. When did you break up?"

"Six months ago. Six months today actually."

"Is that why you've been so emotionally all over the place the past few weeks?"

"Yeah. I found an old picture of us and it brought back alot. I'm sorry, I know I haven't exactly made the best first impression."

Riley assures her she doesn't have to be sorry because they could see from the beginning that Penelope is a good person. They then ask to see the picture. Something Penelope learned quickly about Riley is that they can be kinda nosey, not in a bad way but just a generally curios way. 

Penelope hops off the bed and flicks through her journal to find the picture before sitting back down and handing it to Riley.

"Dang. She's cute." Riley says jokingly, "You two look really happy there." they adds sincerely.

Penelope simply smiles as she looks at the picture. It's one of her favourites, one of the many moments her and Josie were caught up in their own world not noticing anyone else around. Which is how MG managed to snap a picture of them while they were waiting on cookies baking one morning. Josie sitting on the work top, Penelope between her legs leaning against her chest. With them both very clearly dotted with flour, along with half of the kitchen.

"Is this the only picture you have of the two of you?" Riley asks, handing it back.

"No. We kinda worked on a photo album together. My partner in crime, MG, took alot of pictures of us in our own little world without us knowing. Then he printed out 2 of each so we both had a copy. We also took probably way too many pictures together with the camera my mom gave me for my 16th." Penelope explains, smiling at the memories.

Before Penelope can get too caught up in her thoughts she puts the photo back in her journal and asks if they can change the subject.

Riley, being the movie nerd they are, grab their laptop and start asking Penelope a bunch of questions to figure out which movie they should watch.

Eventually settling on House Of 1000 Corpses, Riley magically flips the lights off. Neither of them get scared by horror movies, if anything they spend most of the time laughing at all the scary parts, but it's still an unwritten rule that they turn the light off while watching them.

\- The Next Day -

"You want me to go back there for 6 weeks? I left for a reason." Penelope yells at the headmaster.

"Pen, calm down. Take some time to think about it." Riley chimes in from the chair beside her.

Penelope doesn't take even a second to think before she gets up and walks out the room. Riley watches her leave and when they look back to the headmaster, he gestures for RIley to go after her. They give him a quick apologectic smile before following Penelope.

Arriving back at their dorm, Riley finds Penelope pacing and mumbling to herself, repeating things the headmaster said.

Not knowing what else to do, Riley steps in front of Penelope to stop her pacing. Penelope, caught in her own thoughts, walks straight into Riley. 

"I can't go back there." Penelope rushes out. 

Riley wraps her arm around Penelope's shoulder and guids her over to her bed, where she immediatly curls up agains the headboard with her face in her knees. 

Never having been the best at comfort, RIley makes themself comfortable on the bed beside Penelope, who immediatly falls against their side.

It takes some time but eventually she calms down and uncurls herself, but keeps her head resting on Riley's shoulder.

"I yelled at Headmaster Marleau, didn't I." Is the first thing Penelope asks.

Riley gives a slight nod and Penelope just sighs before saying, "That wasn't entirely my fault just to be clear. Something had Josie upset." mumbling the last sentence.

"Oh. So you're ex slash soulmate is called Josie. Good to know, I know who to interrogate when I get there." Riley jokes.

Turns out, one of the school councelers doesn't think Penelope is settling in well and thinks visiting her old school again would be a good idea. Just in time for a few Belgian students who have been given the chance to go to Salvatore Boarding school for the oppertunity to learn more about vampires and werewolves.

Riley suggets that it might be a good idea, especially to talk things out with Josie since Penelope has been getting somewhat overwhelmed not just because of her own emotions but because of Josie's too. Penelope has had plenty of time to practice keeping calm during the times Josie is worked up, as well as learning what emotions are hers and which belong to her soulmate. But it doesn't mean it's easy for her yet.

"I suppose it would be nice to see how she's doing. I miss her, alot." she considers, "And I do want to see what trouble MG has got himself into without me there coaching him through winning over his crush who also happens to be Josie's sister. I wonder how Barbie is doing." she laughs.

"I am having no part in insulting someone I've never met." Riley laughs.

They continue joking around which eventually turns into a more serious conversation. It ends with Penelope agreeing to visit Salvatore Boarding School with Riley and the other ten students going.

Penelope makes her way back to the headmasters office and apologizes for her outburst, thankfully he lets her off with a warning. He asks if she's sure about going on this trip, and with the thought of seeing Josie again flying through her mind, she tells him she's absolutely sure.

\- In SBS -

Alaric hangs up the phone after a conversation with Headmaster Marleau confirming the details about the Belgian students coming to visit. No quicker than the conversation ends does he get an email with everything they disscussed. Including the names of the visiting students.

The twins, who were sitting patiently waiting on the phone call to end, make their way round the desk to have a look at all the detials.

Josie's glances at the list of names, but she has to do a double take when she sees the last one.

"Penelope is coming back?" She asks, her voice getting caught in her throat as she has to choke back tears at the thought of seeing her again.

"The headmaster thought it would be good for her to see some of her old friends again." Is all Alaric gets the chanc to say before Josie walks out the room, failing to hold back a few tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting started now! I hated waiting this long to bring in the witch we're all missing, but she's in every chapter from now on!   
> And i absolutely had to get the parallel of them both finding pictures in. For no other reason than CUTE!
> 
> Also thanks to being ill twice in the past couple weeks I've been thrown off my already barely existent writing schedual, so my apologies for how long the next update may take. But I have the rest of the chapters mostly planned so I just need to get back into the writing groove and all will be well again.


	6. Home Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so originally there was gonna be a short chapter of them both preparing to see the other again. But my brain decided it just wasnt gonna worka so just skipped right to Penelope arriving back at SBS.

Time passes almost to quickly and within what seems like only a few days, but is really a month, Penlope finds herself in a bus pulling up to the Salvatore Boarding School for the first time in forever

"How you holding up?" Riley asks from beside her.

"Not great, but I guess there's no turning back now." Penelope answers as the bus comes to a stop at the familiar front doors.

As they get off the bus Penelope and Riley hang at the back of the group. But Dorian, who is waiting to greet the students, spots her and almost looks surprised that she's here.

Dorian introduces himself and welcomes the students before leading them inside. Walking through the halls again quickly threatens to overwhelm Penelope. The familiar voices and laughter coming from every corner of the building. The cheering of the wolves ignoring the rules and running around the halls tossing a football. 

Even in the magic hanging in the air feels different from the Belgian school. As much as Penelope doesn't want to admit it, it feels more like home than anywhere she's ever known.

As Riley is looking around, they notice Penelope staring at nothing. A very obvious sign she's caught in her thoughts. Not wanting to bring any attention to either of them, they subtly decide to hold Penelope's hand in an attempt to bring her out her thoughts. 

Penelope gets a small fright but when she realizes what's going on, she whispers a thank you to Riley.

They enter the main hall Penelope is surprised to see things set up different from normal. Two of of the long dining tables they have have been put together. Alaric at the head of the table with the twins either side, MG and Rafael on one side and Hope on the other. 

No matter how much Penelope wants to look anywhere else, her eyes always come back to Josie. 

MG spots her across the room and subtley waves, but all she can offer in return is a small smile.

MG's movement gets Josie's attention. And that's when she spots Penelope at the back of the group.

For just a second time seems to slow around them, and Josie almost looks happy to see her. But as quickly as they looked at each other, Josie looks away and whispers something to her dad before standing up.

The other students barely notice as Josie hurries past, too busy looking around their home for the next six weeks.

But Penelope notices. She notices everything. From the ribbon in Josie's shirt collar being one she had left behind, to the familiar smell of Josie's perfume.

She doesn't even spare a glance as she rushes past Penelope. Not surprising, but it still hurts none the less.

Riley lightly tugs Penelope's hand to get her to sit down. Penelope can tell Riley has questions, but knows they'll have to wait until later giving her some time to gather her thoughts.

Once everyone is settled Penelope feels someone watching her. Looking around she quickly spots LIzzie glaring at her across the table. Not wanting to deal with Lizzie, she not so subtly roles her eyes and ignores the blonde twin.

If she's being honest, she doesn't listen to Alaric's welcome speech. Her mind is taken over by Josie's emotions, and she also really doesn't care about the welcome speech.

It doesn't seem like long before Riley is gently nudging her to take her attention as they are about to be lead to their dorms. 

Once they get to their dorm they're told that a few of the wolves have volunteered to help bring in their luggage and that they'll drop it off some time soon.

"So. The girl that ran out. She's your ex, right?" Riley asks once the door is closed.

Penelope simply mumbles a yes as she looks around the room.

"I haven't known you long, but I can tell there's something bigger bothering you." Riley says.

"She's scared of me. I don't know what she's scared of but she felt scared when she ran out that room. And now, I'm pretty sure she's sitting in her room crying. I know I hurt her, but I didn't think she'd ever have to run out the room to avoid me." Penelope rambles, barely taking a breath "This is how she felt the day I broke up with her." She sighs.

\- Josie -

Sitting curled on her bed crying she's barely aware of anyone entering her room until the bed dips. Peaking out her arm she sees Hope and MG sitting at the edge of her bed.

"I thought after my sessions with Emma I'd at least be okay seeing her again, as long as I didn't have to talk to her. I guess I was wrong." she says with a pained laugh.

Hope and MG don't say anything, they just move to either side of her and hug her.

"She feels guilty. Since I got back here I've been feeling guilt that I don't think is my own." She adds quietly. "Why would she be guilty? For all she knows I might've just been feeling sick."

"She knows you too well to just think you're sick, Jo." MG says with a soft smile, "She never wanted to hurt you, you know."

"When you're both ready, you need to use this oppertunity to talk things out. Would do you both some good." Hope suggests.

"Let's wait until I can survive being in the same room as her without crying before we move onto talking."

\- Penelope - 

After the Belgian students have lunch, Alaric calls Penelope to his office. Penelope asks Riley to come with her, not quite ready to walk the halls of the Salvatore Boarding School alone yet.

The conversation is relatively calm. Penelope got along well with Alaric when her and Josie were together, and they're able to joke around a little. With Penelope asking what drama has been going on since she left. 

Alaric asks how she's been getting along at her new school and she decides to tell him the truth. That it's not been easy and she'd be lying if she said she didn't miss the Salvatore School.

Riley seems to take a liking to Alaric as they also joke a bit, mainly about Penelope getting into trouble at the Belgian school.

While they're talking Penelope stops mid sentence as something seems to catch her attention out the window.

She stops herself mid sentence and stands up to get a better look. At first, there's nothing. But at a closer look she sees the last thing she ever expected to see outside of movies and games.

"Uh. Dr Saltzman. Why is there a hydra walking out of the lake?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter. Oho next chapter. Im so far from sorry for what's going to happen :)  
> Also I realized like just before posting this that the timeline is a mess, considering MMF was a near the end of April and holidays start in June so oops, just ignore that if you've noticed it please lol  
> I've got alot going on so next update might be a little longer. But its worth the wait!


	7. Having a Plan Would've Been Better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I had writers block and alot going on.  
> Also this is my first time writing a big fight scene so please be kind on the judgment, ik its not the best but i really tried!  
> I kept it very non graphic btw, so no need to worry about things getting gory

Alaric instantly turns his chair round and looks out the window. Sure enough there's a hydra heading straight for the school.

Grabbing his crossbow from under the table he mumbles "Dammit, I thought malivore had stopped spitting out monsters."

Riley asks what malivore is and Penelope simply says she'll explain later before asking what she can do to help.

They rush out and quickly find themselves standing outside of Penelope's old room.

Alaric opens the door without knocking and finds Hope lying off the side of the bed upside down while both twins are laughing.

"Whatever is going on here, it's on hold." He instantly gets the attention of all three of them with his serious tone, "Long story short, Malivore is back and there's a thirty foot hydra heading for the school."

Nothing more needs to be said, they all scramble off the bed nearly tripping over each other and follow Alaric into the hallway.

Josie nearly bumps into Penelope on her way out. They both freeze for a moment but an ungodly screech comes from near the building letting them know their relationship drama can wait.

They follow Alaric outside without a single plan of attack, which quickly proves to be a horrible idea as another sound straight from hell comes from the hydra before one of it's heads lunges for Hope.

She manages to dodge it and everyone takes it attacking as their cue to start firing spells. 

"So how exactly do we kill this thing?" Lizzie yells at no one in particular as her and Hope behind a tree giving her a chance to siphon more magic.

"Well in greek mythology-" Alaric starts.

"No offence Dr Saltzman but this isn't the time for stories, just tell us where to aim." Hope yells as it knocks down the tree her and Lizzie are behind.

"Decapitate it and burn the wound so it can't grow more heads. Three is bad enough." Penelope answers as she fires a spell hitting the middle head.

"How are we supposed to decapitate it, we don't have weapons and don't know any spells like that." Josie asks barely jumping out the way of a head.

"I have an idea, can you all hold this off for a minute?" Hope asks. A loud no from both the twins and Alaric stops her in her tracks.

"Anything I could help with?" Penelope asks ducking behind a rock to catch her breath. 

Hope fires another spell at the hydra as she makes her way over to Penelope.

Over the sounds of the hydra and spells none of the others know what's going on when Penelope runs back inside.

They continue firing spells but nothing seems to hurt it. Every cut or burn they leave only makes it angrier. Lizzie already has a cut on her arm that's definitely going to need stitches where a falling tree branch caught her, Hope has multiple light blood stains from small injuries caused by diving out the way at the last moment that have already healed, and thankfully the others have managed to keep just out of range.

Penelope comes back into view, followed by MG, and they're both carrying long spare chains they keep in cells in case they need to restrain a vampire or some other horrible circumstances.

"So what's the plan for these?" MG asks as they drop the chains beside Hope before Penelope runs back into the middle of the chaos.

Between spells Hope explains her plan to MG, of course MG is more than happy to help with her insane and possibly deadly idea.

They each grab an end of a long chain and with one final powerful spell that stuns all three heads for a moment they start Hope's crazy idea.

MG runs straight for the middle head, while Hope sticks to the left side of the hydra. They both ignore the others watching them as if they are insane and use their strengh advantages to jump on the hydra's back. 

They both go the way the other came and wrap the chain around the hydra's neck, and once they're a safe distance away they yank the chain as hard as they can.

With a little help from the others to keep it stunned while it's in pain, they manage to pull the chain tight enough to cut through the hydra and decapitate the first head. 

The head falls between Hope and MG and despite the situation, MG can't resist laughing at he fact he just helped take down a ten foot tall head.

No quicker than the head falls do four fireballs hit the open neck, burning the wound to a crisp. 

"Nothing is growing out of that. Right head next?" Hope yells across to MG as he pulls the chain out from underneath their first victim.

They repeat their plan with the right head, taking it down with minimum effort as the others manage to keep it distracted. 

"So what do we do about the last head. Don't these things have one immortal head." Riley asks.

"Well we can't exactly bury it under a rock." Alaric answers as he manages to fire an arrow straight into it's eye. 

It writhes in pain, making hitting it with spells incredibly difficult. Josie shoots another fireball at it but it flies right past the eye Alaric shot moments earlier.

But the part that confuses them is that it doesn't react to the fireball like it did to others. They all have the same idea, that it's now blind in that eye. 

Alaric makes his way to the other side and shoots another arrow which by some miracle hits it straight in the eye again. 

It begins lunging blindly, catching trees instead of it's attackers. The falling trees bring them all dangerously close to each other. Hope, Lizzie, Alaric and MG on one side hidden behind a bush. Penelope, RIley and Josie mostly out in the open with no big enough strong enough trees to hide behind.

"Maybe it's not as immortal as it seems?" Lizzie asks, breathless.

"Yeah! Maybe we can't hurt it from the outside, like it's skin is impenetrable but we can blow it up from the inside! That would explain how it's now blind." MG says, starting to get more excited as Lizzie gags at the thought of possibly getting covered in more monster guts.

"There's nothing about that in any books though." Alaric says.

"Yeah there also isn't anything about tribrids yet here I am." Hope says firing a spell at it's open mouth as it attempts to bite nothing in the middle of the two groups and it quickly retreats in pain.

Josie immediatly understands what's happening and steps more into the middle of the small arena area that's been created by fallen trees. A careless idea at the best of times, but even worse when she realizes she's out of magic.

The others are more focused on stopping it getting to close to them and can't react quick enough as the last head goes straight for Josie.

The only one who sees what is about to happen quick enough is Penelope. Everything goes in slow motion as she realizes she can't hit it with a spell without nearly killing Josie, so she does the only thing she can think of. Runs at Josie, pushing her just out the way.

Josie lands hitting her head on a rock, knocking her unconscious for a few seconds. When she comes to the only thing she can hear is a loud ringing and the horrifying sounds of the hydra.

She manages to push herself onto her back despite being in pain from a rough landing and not knowing what even happened. As she looks up the first thing she sees is the last head shaking with something hanging from it's mouth, a something she quickly sees is Penelope.

A spell Josie can't quite make out comes from where RIley is and it hits the hydra in the neck. Which as expected angers it more, but as Riley had hoped it drops Penelope. Well, more like throws her against a tree before another ear pierching shriek deafens them all for a moment.

Short glances between each other and on Alarics mark they fire the most powerfull spells they know at the hydra's mouth. The reaction they hoped for is instantaneous. One last demon like sound and the hydra collapses, completely lifeless. 

MG, Hope and Lizzie fall into a group hug, while Alaric leans against a tree to catch his breath

Josie lets out a sigh of relief and tries to sit up, but pain shoots through her head. She forces herself to sit up anyway and as her eyes focus again she understands what happend when she sees Riley beside hopefully just unconsious Penelope

Seeing Penelope lying there makes her realize what happened. Suddenly the pain in her head is the least of her concerns as she stumbles over to Penelope. 

The first thing Josie sees is Penelope's once white shirt is now completely red, with multiple spots on her torso bleeding badly. Riley is clearly in shock with no idea how to help their friend, but thankfully Alaric is beside them within seconds.

He checks her pulse and everyone lets out breaths they didn't know they were holding when he annouces she's still alive but barely.

As he picks Penelope up he doesn't need the school doctor to tell him that she's got a few broken ribs and that it will be a miracle if she doesn't have any organ damage. It's moments like these he's gratefull they have a few different magical things that could heal her quickly.

Alaric takes Penelope inside, Riley staying right by her side and MG trailing behind carrying Alaric's crossbow.

Josie on the other hand, she's found herself curled up with her knees pulled tightly to her chest. 

Hope uses her near enough destroyed cardigan to gently clean the blood away from the wound on Josie's head to see how bad it is. Lizzie just watches helplessly, no idea on how to comfort her sister.

Hope tells Josie that she's going to need stitches. She isn't surprised considering the amount of blood she can feel dripping down her cheek. But stitches are the least of her concerns. She needs to know Penelope id going to be okay.

Lizzie helps josie stand up as she's understandably a little dizzy and they follow Hope inside to get themselves cleaned and stitched up. 

The rest of the day is kind of a blur and Josie spends the most of it alone in her room. It's been hours since she felt anything from Penelope, and despite Alaric having told her Penelope is fine she's still worried.

Gathering what little courage she has, Josie decides to go to Penelope's room to thank her and see how she's doing.

Josie quietly knocks on the door before nerously fiddling with her sweater sleeve.

Riley is quick to answer the door and Josie can tell by the lack of surprise on their face that they know exactly who she is.

"Hey. I came to see how you and Penelope are doing. I'm Josie by the way." She has to stop herself before she begins rambling.

Riley introduces themselves before assuring Josie they're both okay.

"Can you two keep it down?" A hoarse voice speaks from just out of Josie's sight.

Riley can tell Josie has been worrying about Josie and silently steps aside with a small smile inviting Josie in.

Josie is glad to see Penelope looking better already. She makes a mental note to thank Hope for teaching them a recipe for an extremely gross but effective healing spell. 

Josie sits on the edge of the bed beside her and without thinking gently holds her hand. 

"How are you feeling?" She asks instantly realizing that it's a stupid question.

"Well I can now say I survived being attacked by a hydra so I guess I can't really complain." She jokes.

"You shouldn't have done that. You should've just distracted it with a spell."

"Spells were barely hurting that thing, and I wasn't just gonna stand back and watch you die."

Josie whispers a thank you, not sure what else to say and not trusting herself not to get emotional at the thought of losing Penelope good.

"How did it finally get taken down anyways?" Penelope asks.

"We blew it up from the inside out." Riley says, somehow barely fazed by what happened.

Penelope then questions how they got rid of the body. But nobody actually knows how they're going to get rid of it, so for the time being there's a barrier spell around it and an invisibility spell before it winds up local news.

"So. This probably wasn't the first day you were expecting." Josie says to Riley.

"Could've been worse." They shrug. "Although having a plan would've been better." 

"Nothing scares RIley. Not even the time a spell went wrong and they nearly burned the whole classroom down." Penelope laughs.

Josie then turns to Riley hoping for an explanation which turns into the three of them continuing to talk for a short while before Josie eventually goes back to her room in time for curfew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo, not sorry for nearly killing Penelope. I know y'all would be getting impatient for a Posie reunion but you weren't getting it without some angst first!  
> Also instead of trying to stick to an upload schedual im just gonna update whenever a chapter is ready in the hopes it'll take the pressure off and updates happen more often.


	8. Old Habits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 1:30am, Im tired and too impatient to wait until morning to proof read so here, have a short happy filler chapter!

The next morning begins thankfully calmly. Josie is sitting out the way minding her own business as she picks at her breakfast when someone bumps into her from behind.

She turns around and any anger quickly disappears when she sees Riley standing with an apologetic smile. Looking past them Josie sees a few wolves pushing each other around and quickly realized they must've bumped into Riley.

"Just ignore them. You do not wanna kick up a fuss with wolves." Josie says remembering the few times new students tried to argue with wolves and regretted it.

"Got it. Back in Belgium I would've gave them a piece of my mind."

"Yeah definitely don't do that. They have a worse temper than Penelope when she's hungry."

"Yikes." Riley laughs.

Josie just smiles and nods.

"Do you wanna come back to our room for breakfast and escape them?" Riley asks as the wolves start yelling and tossing what appears to be an apple around.

"Are you sure you don't mind?"

"It would be great for you to join us, you seem cool. And Penelope will probably be happy to know you're doing okay after yestarday."

Josie agrees, glad to escape the loudest supernaturals in the school. 

They get back to Penelope and Riley's dorm for the next few weeks and Josie is relieved to see Penelope sitting up today.

"Guess who's joining us." Riley says cheerfully.

"Aren't you supppsed to have english right now?" Penelope teases as she sees Josie who still looks half asleep. 

Josie is surprised for a moment that Penelope still remembers her time table before explaining that she has the day off. Besides Penelope, she has the worst injury from the day before after she landed on a rock and Alaric thought it best for her to have a day to recover slightly.

Penelope invites Josie to sit on the bed beside her while Riley sits on a chair beside the bed.

They start off eating in silence before Josie decides to ask what trouble Penelope has already got herself into in Belgium.

"Not much. Although when she first arrived this weird dude instantly had a crush on her and followed her like a puppy. She burned his hair off after two days of his strange shit." Riley laughs.

Josie's mind quickly goes to when she set Penelope on fire and gives her a "You didn't" look.

"I feel like I'm missing some context here." Riley says pointing their fork between them.

"Well. Lets just say, I use to have long hair." 

It takes Riley a second to understand then she looks at Josie with wide eyes.

"Hey I said I was sorry. And I still feel guilty about that."

"Don't worry about it, I was thinking of trying something new."

Riley silently watches them joke so easily with each other and can't help but wonder why they ever broke up.

Eventually the time comes for Riley to go to their introduction class with all the basics like don't piss of wolves, something Riley has already been warned about. Penelope can't go since she can still barely walk, but she already knows the basics of the Salvatore school so she dosn't really care.

Josie isn't quite sure what to do once Riley leaves but Penelope invites her to stay and watch movies all day since they have nothing better to do.

Before they get comfortable Penelope asks Josie to pass her a small bottle of some disgusting looking dark purple goo.

"Don't tell me this is the magical healing thing you're having to drink every few hours." Josie scrunches her face in disgust.

"It is and I hate it. It tastes worse than I could ever describe." Penelope gags as she drinks it.

She holds the bottle out for Josie to smell and Josie has the same reaction. 

"I need to ask Hope why her aunt couldn't make it taste better." 

"Between this or broken ribs for weeks, I'd choose the broken ribs." Penelope laughs, "But your dad insists I drink it because he wants me to enjoy my time here."

Josie's face drops as she once again remembers that Penelope is lucky to have come out of that situation with only a few broken ribs and some bite marks that have already healed.

"Hey, no sadness. I'm in enough pain as it is, I don't wanna see you hurting to." Penelope tries to lighten the mood.

"I wouldn't be in pain if you hadn't pushed me onto a rock." Josie laughs, deciding to attempt to enjoy Penelope being back.

Without thinking Penelope gently brushes a bit of hair away from Josie's wound to see how bad it is. But when she realizes what she's doing she pulls her hand away and mumbles an apology.

Quickly changing the subject, she asks Josie if she has any ideas of what movies they could spend the day watching. Unsurprisingly, Josie suggests they watch as many of Harry Potter films as they can. Of course Penelope is more than happy to binge Harry Potter.

Although throughout the day they don't do much talking. Rather they spend more time repeating spells, including using a hairbrush as a wand, and doing really bad british accents. Penelope struggles occasionally. laughing too much still hurts. After a while though the fun over powers the pain and she sort of forgets until she moves to quickly while faking a spell.

Neither of them pay much attention to their soulmate bond, but every so often they'll get a feeling of pure happiness from the other as they fall into old playful habits.

After classes are done for the day, Riley heads back to their dorm and walks in just in time for the hairbrush/wand bouncing off the wall right in front of them.

They pick it up and look to the other two witches who are acting innocent and simply says "I'm not gonna ask." while putting it down on a desk.

Dropping their bag, Riley recognizes the credits on Penelope's laptop as Harry Potter and asks if they can join the binge. 

"The more the merrier." Josie says happily, "But can I get my wand back."

It takes RIley a second to figure out she means the hairbrush. They hand it back to Josie while trying not to laugh, but quickly fails when they notice Penelope has a pencil as her 'wand'.

Riley decides to use a fancy pen they have as their wand, and with that they start Goblet of FIre. 

The rest of the day is spent laughing and joking around. Josie and RIley become friends easily, which turns out to be very good when Josie falls asleep half on top of Riley after a stolen wand turned into a pillow fight leaving them both exhausted. 

Thankfully by the end of the day Penelope has healed enough to stand without help and manages to find a way to cover them with a blanket. Not an easy task since Josie is legs are partially hanging off the bed as she's laying on her back across Riley's legs while Riley is laying properly.

Penelope is glad she packed her camera because it's a sight she definitely wants to remember. This is definitely not how she expected her first couple days back to go, but she also doesn't want it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I don't remember the past hour and a half, so I got right in the zone writing this. Never had that happen before.


	9. Please Shut Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I found out I made a mistake when planning that was gonna result in either a really short chapter or a longer than I would like to write one. So I went with the short chapter and here it is. And I pretty much blasted this out in about an hour, proof read it but not enough to check for spelling mistakes so if there's any then oops.

The next day Penelope has healed enough to join the other students from Belgium in the classes. Starting with an introduction class about vampires.

MG and Kaleb volunteered to help out if necessary. Somehow the teachers manage to drag out the most basic information about vampires to last a three hour class. 

Kaleb kept falling asleep and MG spent the most part of those 3 hours staring into space. Penelope spent most of the time drawing in a small leather journal she often keeps in her bag for the sake of boring classes. And as much as Riley wanted to learn about vampires, watching Penelope draw was far more interesting.

After that class, it's back to normal subjects. Like English where Penelope would've fallen asleep if Riley hadn't lightly punched her in the arm. 

Eventually classes end for the day and Penelope and Riley go to Alaric's office knowing one of their teachers would be there. With a little more effort than expected, they manage to convice them to allow the both of them to go off campus. 

The original rule was that Belgian students weren't allowed off campus without a teacher, but since Penelope already knows the area and is a responsible student as far as teachers are aware she's allowed to go and take RIley with her. 

First stop is the Mystic Grill, then hopefully after Penelope can take Rlley on a small tour around town. Penelope gets herself a strawberry milkshake and Riley doesn't even need to see the rest of the options when they spot the chocolate one.

"Okay. This is way better then milkshakes in Belgium." Riley says, completely unaware of her milk moustache until Penelope nearly chokes on her milkshake laughing.

"I have missed these so much!" Penelope says before drinking nearly a quarter in one go.

"I would never have guessed." Riley says quietly, getting a playful "Shut up" in return. 

After their milkshakes they share an order of fries and laugh about the earlier classes. Riley does great impressions of some of the less liked teachers at the Salvatore school. 

"Something about Dr Saltzman gives me bad vibes. He seems like a nice guy but I don't trust him." Riley says.

"He has his moments when he's good. But he's got alot of big secrets, you're right not to trust him."

"How do you know he's got secrets?" 

"Wait. Have I not told you about the magic pens I used to spy?" Penelope asks casually.

Riley puts their face in their hands and mumbles "No. No you haven't. I don't know If I should ask you to explain."

Penelope goes on to explain what she done, all while Riley listens unable to figure out if they're proud or scared of whatever other tricks Penelope is hiding. 

"Do you have any idea the amount of blackmail material you're sitting with." 

"I wish. I gave my notebook to Josie. Long story."

"You... You told your soulmate that you had been spying on most of the school." Riley asks, barely believing it.

"Yeah, looking back that probably wasn't the best idea. But she doesn't hate me so no worries." 

They finish eating then wind up sitting under a tree in the town square, deciding to push their luck on how long they can stay out and still make it back for curfew.

"So what did you and Josie get up to yestarday, besides watching Harry Potter?"

"Nothing. She just caught me up on a few things, new drama going around the school."

"So you didn't..." Riley wiggles their euebrows suggestively.

"Oh my god. NO!" Penelope says, this time it's her turn to hide her face.

"You really didn't..." Riley starts suggesting they had sex so many ways without actually saying.

"No. We didn't. Please shut up." Penelope says through laughter as she hits Riley with her jacket. 

They continue to talk about random subjects until the sun begins to set and they have to go back. But they agree that going to the Mystic Grill after school is going to be a regular thing. Riley even suggests they invite Josie ocassionally, which of course Penelope has no objection to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With The Last of Us Part 2 coming out, updates on this are gonna be slowed. I know the game only came out yestarday but I saw alot of the leaks and since Thursday I've already had 4 or 5 Ellie/Dina one shot ideas. So my attention is gonna be split between this and them, so updates are gonna be slightly further apart but hopefully not by much.


	10. Little Penelope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I didn't proof read this. Pretty much as soon as I post this im gonna pass out for at least 12 hours. So, G'night everyone lol

The class for the next few days is how to defend themselves against vampires. MG and Kaleb volunteered even though they know they're going to be in a world of pain as witches try out spells on them. But Alaric promised them a week off for helping. 

Josie and Lizzie also get the day off to help show the effects of siphoning from a vampire. They also demonstrate various spells that can take down a vampire, MG's request because he wasn't keen on the idea of someone he barely knows possibly nearly killing him not ten minutes into class.

Riley spends most of the day having to lightly elbow Penelope to stop her staring at Josie with very obvious heart eyes. Josie on the other hand, she spends most of her day attempting to stop her sister from staring daggers at Penelope across the room. Lizzie isn't very keen on the idea of her sister getting close with the she devil again, even though they're soulmates.

The class is fairly uneventful, MG and Kaleb were in far less pain than they expected but they find out during lunch that the twins went easy on them. They both groaned knowing the Belgian students probably won't go easy on them the next day when it's their turn to try out vampire defense spells.

After classes end for the day Riley bumps into the twins on their way back to their dorm and invites the twins to join themselves and Penelope. Unsurprisingly Lizzie rejects the offer barely a second after RIley finishes their sentence. Although Josie agrees, wanting to get to know Riley better and also spent more time with Penelope before she inevitably has to leave.

"Barbie really doesn't like me being back here does she?" Penelope asks Josie when the three of them are back in Penelope and RIley's dorm after dinner.

Josie gives a half hearted glare for the nickname followed by "I don't think she likes you even being on this earth."

"I'm like 6 inches shorter than her. I take up less space on earth than she does."

Riley starts laughing, always finding short jokes about Penelope funny. Riley is the same height as Lizzie and within the first week of them being friends probably used every short joke on Penelope.

"Yeah but you've got an ego bigger than the school. You always have." Josie jokes.

"Wait she's always been this way?" Riley asks.

"Little Penelope always thought herself immortal and perfect." Josie laughs at all the memories.

"Hey, my parents spoiled me. It's not my fault I wasn't taught any better."

"Okay I can understand that making you think you were perfect. But what made you think you were immortal?" Riley asks confused.

"Do you want to explain it, or shall I tell them them the first time I saw little you think you were immortal?" Josie teases.

Penelope proceeds to cover her face with a pillow knowing Josie will tell the story either way.

\- Flashback - 9 Year Old Penelope and 8 Year Old Josie -

"Pen I really don't think we should be away from the group." Josie whispers as they walk through the woods. It's alot of the younger students are having their classes outside.

"It's fine Jojo. I sneak away all the time and nobody ever notices."

They come to a small clearing in the woods filled with dasies and decide it's a good enough place to hang out while ditching class.

"Wanna see a really cool spell I saw the older kids using?" Penelope asks excitadly.

"If it was being taught to the older students then we shouldn't be using it."

"It's not that dangerous. We'll be okay." 

Penelope closes her eyes and begins whispering a spell. A few minutes pass and Josie is about to ask what's supposed to be happening, when Penelope starts slowly levatating. 

For a moment Josie ignores the danger of the spell and is in awe at how cool it is. And at how powerful Penelope is, she's always been surprisingly strong for her age.

"What do you think?" Penelope asks once she's floating about 5 feet off the ground.

Josie is speechless which makes Penelope giggle slightly. She continues to float higher which causes Josie to finally figure out what to say. 

"Uhh, do you know how to come down?" 

Penelope's confidence doesn't dissapear when she whispers something and falls right to the ground.

"Just like that." She sits up with a huge smile on her face, leaves and twigs caught in her hair.

Josie immediatly panics and asks if she's okay. 

"We're witches! Nothing can hurt us." Penelope laughs, rolling up her sleeves to show she doesn't have any cuts or grazes.

Josie doesn't get the chance to be relieved before they hear voices shouting for them in the distance. Busted.

She scrambles to her feet and brushes off the dirt and leaves before offering a hand to Penelope who happily accepts.

That's when Penelope finds out she can get hurt. As she attempts to stand and pain shoots through her ankle. The sudden pain causes her to stumble into Josie and they both fall to the ground. 

\- End of Flashback -

By the time Josie stops to take a drink, Riley can't stop laughing at young Penelope's logic.

"So what happened after that." They ask.

"Well what usually happens when a young kid is in a lot of pain? Tears. She started crying hard while also half pinning me down. I managed to call for the teachet and everyting was fine in the end. We got the scolding of our lives though." 

"I hate you so much." Penelope mumbles from beneath the pillow.

"Hey I got grounded for a month because of you. Consider this my revenge." Josie laughs.

Penelope thrusts her leg in the general direction of where she thinks Josie is, and manages to kick Josie in the shoulder.

That one kick turns into a full on play fight which eventually ends when Penelope falls off the bed.

"Are you okay, that sounded like it hurt." Riley says, "Wait, witches can't get hurt." they laugh.

The pillow Penelope was hiding under which she also had a hold of when she fell comes flying from the side of the bed and hits Riley square in the face.

"That's what you get for laughing." Penelope says with a playful grin as she peaks over the edge of the bed.

Riley attempts to throw it back at her but she manages to duck in time for it to miss her, but only just. It catches her hair causing a small tuft to stick up, similar to a unicorn horn. 

Of course, much to Penelope's confusion, Josie and RIley start laughing and RIley is quick to get their phone and take a picture. They both quickly calm down when Penelope climbs back onto the bed out of fear of having another pillow thrown at them.

Without saying anything, Josie slides closer to Penelope and fixes the unicorn horn of hair. It takes everything in her to not start casually playing with Penelope's hair as she used to.

Moving back to where she was originally sitting, she can see Riley watching their interaction out the corner of her eye. She doesn't know how much Penelope has told them about their past, but she can tell Riley definitely can see there's alot of unspoken feelings between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also this was gonna be longer but my keyboard died and I have no clue where the charger is because I'm an unorganized mess *awkward thumbs up*


	11. Who Knew You Were Such A Softie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates? 2 Nights in a row? Trust me I'm just as surprised as you are. Also I did proof read this for a change but there's guaranteed gonna be spelling mistakes somewhere so >insert shruggie here<

After the vampire classes are over, it's onto wolves. And just in time for the full moon. The Belgian students, with consent of the Salvatore wolves, have been given the oppertunity to watch the wolves turn. Some of the Belgian students aren't keen on the idea of watching their new friends break every bone in their body, but for the majority their curiosity gets the better of them.

Something that surprised everyone is Hope volunteering to spend time with the Belgian students through the night to show them what a wolf looks like up close. Despite being told Hope has full control of herself when in wolf form, the only two who took her up on that offer were Riley and Penelope. Well, more like Riley wanted to but didn't want to be alone.

While the other Belgian students are in class being taught how to keep themselves safe around wolves, Penelope and RIley are spending time with Hope, Josie and Lizzie.

Alaric wasn't a fan of letting Hope do this alone since there is still many unknowns about her capabilities, so Lizzie and Josie agreed to be there as back up incase anything goes wrong. 

The whole time they're talking Lizzie and Penelope take every oppertunity to make passive aggresive comments. Hope even has to put a silencing spell on Lizzie at one point while Josie takes Penelope out the room. Penelope gets along better with Hope than she would've ever expected, and everyone gets along with Riley. 

The conversation did start off talking about what they'll be doing during the night but eventually turned into a casual conversation because none of them want to go to class.

During one of Penelopea and Lizzie's arguments, RIley mumbles something in French that nobody else can understand. Except Hope. Lizzie and Penelope stop arguing when they realize Hope and RIley are having a conversation between themselves in French.

"Since when do you know French?" Josie asks Hope.

"I was born in the French quarter of New Orleans. Knowing it was kind of necessary to help keep the peace, my mom taught me it for as long as I can remember."

"How have I not known this before now?" Lizzie asks, almost sounding offended at the secret.

"It's never came up." Hope shrugs.

Lizzie grabs a scrap of paper and scribbles a note, making sure to hand it to Hope without anyone else seeing.

Hope reads it and can't help but burst out laughing when she sees it which gets a confused look from Josie. 

"Don't ask. You don't want to know." Hope says shoving the note in her bag.

"Blondie writing sex notes? Never saw that coming." Penelope comments, taking a guess at what it says.

This time it's Hope's turn to take Lizzie out the room before someone gets murdered.

"I did not need to know my sister wrote a sex note." Josie mumbles.

"It might not have been. Although judging by their reaction..." Penelope trails off.

Wanting to change the subject, Josie asks Riley what other languages she knows and how well she knows French.

"Well I grew up speaking both French and English, one dad from Ireland and my other dad from Belgium. They're the only languages I know." Riley explains, "There's also whatever language spells are in but I don't know if that counts."

"Ooooh so that's why I couldn't figure out your accent. That's a cool mix."

They get to talking a little about Riley's dads. Something Penelope didn't know was that Riley's Irish dad chose their name and that it means "Brave".

Finally night falls and as the other students head down to the wolf cells, Hope and the others go out to the Old Mill where there's mats set up for Hope to show just how strong wolves are without anyone getting hurt.

It starts off with sparring. Hope showing how fast and strong wolves can be. She's play fought with the twins more times than she can count so she doesn't go easy on them. But when it comes to Riley and Penelope she takes it easy at first and doesn't use her full strength.

"Okay, okay. I think we get just how strong you are." Riley says out of breath after being knocked down by Hope for probably the ninth time. Hope just laughs and helps RIley up.

"So when do we get to see wolf Mikaelson?" Penelope asks.

"Now?" Hope suggests. Everyone agrees, all of them already getting slightly tired.

Hope goes up to the second floor of the mill and a few minutes later a magnificant silver wolf comes down and sits in the middle of the group.

"Holy shit you're fluffy." Riley mumbles unintentionally.

Lizzie laughs and shows just how fluffy she is by burying her hand in Hopes fur.

"As long as you don't annoy them, wolves are just big puppies." Lizzie says. Proving her point, she scratches a spot between Hopes shoulder blade causing the wolf to fall into a fluffy pile.

Lizzie removes her hand after a moment and allows Hope to stand back up. But next it's Josie's turn to mess with her. 

Josie gets Hope's attention before pulling her hand out from behind her back to reveal she's holding a stick. Hope knows exactly what's about to happen but has no control when she chases after the stick when Josie throws it. 

Only when she skids to a stop beside the stick does she snap back into reality. Deciding on a little revenge, Hope runs back into the mill and tackles Lizzie onto the couch before pushing herself off the side of the couch and jumping in Josie's direction to knock her onto the mats.

Hope becomes a dead weight ontop of Josie, pinning her under the fluffy silver mass. 

"Just how soft are you?" RIley asks.

Hope allows Josie to sit up as she walks over to Riley and lays infront of them.

"That's her way of saying you can touch her." Lizzie informs them.

Riley, somewhat wary about touching a wolf, very slowly lays their hand on Hope's back. 

"How can something so deadly seem so cuddly." Riley says, in awe.

Feeling more cuddly than normal tonight, Hope stands up before laying on Riley's legs.

"Damn Mikaelson, who knew you were such a softie." Penelope teases as sizes up her hand to Hope's paw.

"There is a werewolf. Laying on my legs. Is this real?" RIley says, not sure if they're dreaming or not.

"Definitely real. If you're lucky enough to be on Hope's good side she's one of the sweetest people." Josie says, making herself comfortable on the couch beside Lizzie. She's sure Hope would glare at her for calling her sweet if she wasn't so comfy on Riley.

They eventually stop playing around and Penelope and Riley get the chance to fight Hope. Once again Hope goes easy on them but they still have a sucessful night learning how to defend themselves if they're attacked by a wolf.

To tired to change back, Hope stays as a wolf for the night and Lizzie get's the joy of falling asleep wrapped in a wolf. Truly the best way to feel safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally more about RIley! Also yes Ik not much has been happening the past few chapters. Tbh I'm new to writing long fics so go easy on me, i have a plan. Maybe not the best but eh, I'm trying something new so I can't be perfect at it instantly.


	12. The Best Day In A Long Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so freaking sorry this took so long. This is the only chapter I didn't have planned before writing and it gave me HELL. And also the Wynonna Earp mid season final is in less than an hour and Im kinda freaking out over it so excuse any mistakes. Have some cuteness. Enjoy!

A weekend three weeks into the Belgian students visit, Josie is woken up by a knock at the door. Not bothering about having bed hair, she wraps her blanket around her shoulders and answers the door. Standing there is none other than Penelope, already looking wide awake.

"You better have a good reason for waking me up." Josie grumbles playfully.

"I do, first reason is that it's 12pm and you should've already be awake." Penelope laughs, "And second, Riley and I are going hiking at the quarry. They're inviting MG right now and I thought you might wanna join." 

"I'm in. I haven't been there in too long." Josie invites Penelope in to wait while she gets changed.

"I love what you've done with the place." Penelope jokes, looking around her old room.

"Yeah, it's amzing what cleaning up scorch marks and getting rid of the weed smell can do for a place."

Penelope rolls her eyes but she has to agree, the room does look better without marks of spells gone wrong littering the walls and ceiling. 

She makes herself comfortable on the bed while Josie grabs clothes and heads into the bathroom to get changed.

"Do you think Hope and Lizzie might want to join us." Penelope asks. She's actually grown to like Hope, and over time her and Lizzie have gotten more used to not being allowed to murder each other.

"No harm in asking. I don't think they have plans." Josie shouts back, "But you have to promise to behave." She addds, peaking her head out the bathroom.

"I won't start anything if she doesn't."

"Just ignore her if she starts anything."

They make small talk as Josie gets ready and packs a bag, just at the same time as she finishes RIley and MG appear.

Half an hour and a stop by Hope and Lizzie's dorm later, they're all on their way to the quarry. Their goal of packing lunch and escaping school grounds without bumping into Alaric failed and the six of them got a saftey lecture which they happily ignore.

But on the plus side of things, he offers to drive them to the quarry and then pick them up just in time to get back for curfew. The twins are by no means fans of the idea that is being stuck in a car with their embarrassing dad, but if it means the six of them can spend more time at the quarry then they can handle it for a while. 

And it may be helpful because they only two that won't be tired by the end of the day are Hope and MG with their supernatural abilities that the others can't deny they are somewhat jealous of.

They watch and wave as Alaric drives away, and once he's out of sight they childishness begins. 

Running up the first section of hill they have short game of tag. But before long Lizzie very ungracefully trips over a stick as she runs from Penelope. 

Penelope of course begins laughing, prompting Lizzie to take the stick she tripped over and whip it against Penelope's ankle. 

"Oh is that how you want today to go?" Penelope challenges as she grabs another stick roughly the same size and points it at Lizzie. Only getting a confused look in return, Penelope yells "En Garde" as the others begin to catch up with them.

And so a sword stick fight begins. Hope is cheering for Lizzie, MG is cheering for Penelope, Josie is wondering if she's the only mature one around. And Riley? They aren't cheering for anyone specifically, they just keep shouting "Go for the kneecaps" or "Stab her. STAB HER!" 

Penelope quickly begins losing, Lizzie has the advantage of being taller with more reach and Penelope can't get close enough to get a clear shot. So, there's only one smart thing to do. Run.

Penelope heads for a tree and attempts to climb it to escape. Riley begins cheering her on, but she only gets about six feet up the tree before grabbing a weak branch and falling back to the hard and dusty ground.

Josie is quickly at her side asking if she's okay, but Penelope can't reply thanks to the force of hitting the ground leaving her winded. Riley knows Penelope is fine, they've already seen her fall out more trees than they can count and get up laughing but the amount of time Penelope is taking to get her breath back is concerning. Normally she can be back up within 30 seconds, years of falling out a tree builds a quick recovery rate. But it's already been a minute.

Hope, Lizzie and MG keep their distance, watching and waiting. When quiet, pained laughter fills the silence. 

"Don't climb that tree, the branches aren't very strong." Penelope laughs.

Riley joins in the laughter and helps her sit up before they begin checking for any cuts on Penelopes arms or back. All while playfully calling Penelope an idiot.

"Don't stop breathing for a whole minute ever again." Josie says as she lightly punches Penelope's leg. 

Penelope can feel the worry coming from Josie, so ignoring the four other people around them she tightly hugs Josie. 

"I'm okay, if i can survive a Hydra then I can survive falling out a tree." Penelope reassures her.

They stay on the ground together for a moment, before Riley coughs reminding them of the small crowd. 

Josie helps Penelope off the ground and picks a few leaves out her hair.

"How about we stop for lunch, before anyone else gets hurt." MG suggests. A suggestion everyone is more than happy to go with since none of them remembered to have breakfast.

They walk a little further and stop at a clearing filled with all sorts of colourful flowers.

Lunch starts off fairly uneventful. MG and Riley are in their own bubble discussing comic books, or at least Josie thinks that's what they're doing. For the most part they've wound up unable to breathe through laughter and have both forgotten about lunch. Penelope can't help but watch, notcing there's an extra little something shining in Riley's eyes that she's never seen before.

Hope and Lizzie are talking about god knows what. They're whispering between themselves also in their own little romantic bubble. Neither Penelope nor Josie want to know what they're talking about, expecting it's probably something tooth rotting levels of sweet. 

That leaves Josie and Penelope talking between themselves, desperatly trying to avoid any topic of romance. Still neither of them know the other is aware of the soulmate bond, but Penelope is aware something is different about Josie but she can't pin point exactly what. They somehow wind up on the topic of magic, which leads to Penelope changing the colours of the surrounding flowers. 

Josie soon joins in with Penelope's magic, and after a few tries they succeed in making a flower that's half purple and half red split perfectly down the middle. Without a second thought Penelope takes the fower and gently tucks the stem into an open button hole on Josie's shirt before continuing a normal conversation. 

As they're all talking a small blue butterfly floats past Hope and lands infront of Josie. Penelope's first reaction is to get her camera, but before she can she notices that it looks injured. 

"Didn't you once say you know how to heal a butterfly?" Lizzie says to Hope who simply nods in response.

"Wait really? They don't teach that at the Salvatore school. Where did you learn?" Penelope asks.

"I kinda taught myself how to when I was seven. I can show you how if you want."

Penelope is shocked at Hope's answer, sometimes she forgets Hope is one of the most powerful supernatural beings on earth, but takes Hope up on her offer because she's always wanted to learn how to heal small creatures.

Hope shifts to sit behind Penelope and slowly walks her through healing the butterfly, and alot quicker than either of them expected the butterfly is flying away no longer in any pain.

After lunch they continue walking, and soon come across another clearing. It has a small pond and more variety of flowers than where they stopped for lunch, along with magical looking moss covered trees.

It starts with Penelope taking a few pictures while Hope leans against a tree sketching the scenery, Lizzie leaning against her side watching. Penelope can't help but take a few pictures of the couple while she's at it, she may not be may the biggest fan of Lizzie but she can't deny her and Hope are perfect for each other. 

Before long Penelope's pictures of scenery become MG and Riley going between superhero poses and looking like models. MG even uses his vamp strength to jump into a tree and hang upside done, which made for a good pic. 

After about twenty minutes MG opts out of the photoshoot in favor of having another blood bag. So Riley manages to get Josie into a few pictures with them. 

The pictures start of somewhat normal, but slowly they find themselves in more and more strange poses. One picture is a blur as Riley attempts to lift up Josie, and the next picture is them both on the ground. Josie having landed on top of Riley as they're both laughing, definitely one of Penelope's new favourite pictures. Along with the next one, MG joining in the pile. 

"Group hug!" MG yells over to Hope and Lizzie. "Or...group pile I guess." he adds.

With very little convincing needed, Hope and Lizzie join the pile. Lizzie falling sideways over MG and Hope having to jump slightly to get onto the pile. Another beautiful picture with everyone laughing added to Penelope's gallery, making her glad she decided to come on this trip from Belgium.

"Get the hell over here." Riley shouts, slightly strained from the weight of multiple people on top of them. 

Penelope decides why not and sets a timer on her camera before going and joining the pile of laughing teenagers. Little did she know though, she set the wrong timer and not only does she succeed in getting a picture of all six of them in a pile, but also the messy attempt at everyone clambering off each other. Hands and feet everywhere, Lizzie doing a strange handstand as she falls face first from the pile and who knows what else. 

The end result however might possibly be Penelope's new favourite group picture. Riley lying on the ground trying to get their breath back, Josie kneeling beside them, MG somehow up another tree, while herself, Hope and Lizzie watch on laughing. 

"We should probably keep moving if we want to make it to the top in time for sunset." Riley says, still laying on the ground.

They take their time walking up the rest of the hill, talking about anything and everything. Lizzie and Penelope even manage to have a civil conversation which leaves Hope and Josie whispering between themselves wondering if the Penelope and Lizzie infront of them are the real ones.

On they way up Penelope takes a few more photos and more often than not someone, usually Riley, photobombs. But the pictures turn out good none the less. She even manages to get a picture of another blue butterfly that decided to land on Josie's nose.

As they finally reach the top after far longer than it should've taken them due to all their messing around, it's already nearing sunset. 

Settling down to watch the sunset and enjoy the roaring waterfall just beside them, Riley and MG get back onto their conversation about comic books. Every so often Penelope listens in and quickly comes to the conclusion Riley has a small crush on MG, there's just something different about the way they talk to him compared to the way they talk to everyone else.

Lizzie and Hope wind up in their own little romantic bubble again, Hope leaning against a tree with Lizzie leaning against her chest. Penelope manages to sneak another picture of them, thinking they look quite cute with the way the sun is shining on them. While she has her camera out she snaps a picture of RIley and MG laughing at what she thinks was a bad joke before placing the camera back in her bag.

After some time of admiring the view, a play fight breaks out between Penelope and Josie over who gets the last sandwich. It starts with trying to push each other away from Penelope's bag to get to it themselves, but quickly turns into climbing over each other and and pulling each other away from the dirt.

"What in hells name are you two doing?" Riley asks after a few minutes of watching.

"She's trying to steal the last sandwich." They both reply at the same time before playfully glaring at each other. 

Riley and MG share an evil glance, and before anyone can react MG has used his vamp speed to grab the bag and steal the last sandwich for himself. And just as an extra bit of fun, he splits it with Riley. Penelope wants to be a little mad, but Riley's laughter at MG definitely confirms her suspicions of their crush, so she lets the sandwich stealing slide. But only this once, next time someone steals food it's war.

They decide to just make themselves comfortable in the position their play fight has landed them in. Which is with Josie laying facing the sunset with her head on Penelope's thigh. 

This time it's Riley's turn to sneak a picture. When they're sure Penelope won't notice, they get her camera out her back that's still beside MG and take a perfect picture of the soulmates in beautiful sunset light.

Everyone falls silent after a while and admires the view. That is until the school phone Alaric trusted Hope with rings, letting everyone know the fun is soon to end since he's on his way to pick them all up. So they all take the last half hour they have to take a few more group pictures and pictures of the sunset before they have to leave.

When they arrive back at the Salvator Boarding School everyone pairs off and goes their seperate ways. Hope and Lizzie head straight for the showers. MG and RIley head back to MG's room for yet more comic book talk. 

Penelope walks Josie back to her room but somehow they wind up staying up late to watch a movie together. But Josie barely makes it half way through before she falls asleep, with her head on Penelope's shoulder.

Not wanting to disturb her soulmate, Penelope decides upon sleeping where she is. She's already slept in her old room a few times, but that was during a movie night with Riley as well where no three of them could be bothered moving from the comfortable pile they were in. 

But this is the first time it's been only her and Josie. And it's also the first time in she doesn't even know how long since Josie has fallen asleep so calmly on her. She's not arguing though, she's missed the feeling of Josie beside her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While writing this I just decided to assume there's alot of woods around Steven's Quarry that they could've explored, and also a car park near the top Alaric could meet them at. I don't remember much about it from The Vampire Diaries so I ended up sorta just winging it.   
> Next chapter has my favourite scene that I've ever written!! So I look forward to everyone seeing that!!


	13. Promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This! This is my favourite chapter!! I love it SO MUCH!

It's Penelope's last full day at the Salvatore Boarding school. Nothing about this trip has went as she expected. She thought Josie would avoid her at all costs, but instead they've spent almost everyday together. Althought somehow during all that time they still haven't had a serious conversation about their feelings or the soulmate bond.

Penelope, Hope and the twins are in the kitchen baking snacks for Penelope and Riley's journey back to Belgium. Well Hope and Josie are doing the baking while Penelope tries to help and Lizzie is sitting on the counter after being told not to touch anything by Hope. Penelope knew Lizzie couldn't cook or bake, but seeing Hope have to tell her not to touch anything nearly made her fall over laughing,

Between the baking, they're all singing and dancing. And occasionally throwing flour at each other. All of them have white spots dotted all over their face and clothes. Penelope's black shirt has two handprints on the back thanks to Lizzie, along with a white spot on the tip of her nose from Josie. 

Just as they put the second batch of cookies in the oven, Riley and MG join them. Both clearly having just woken up after a long night of watching superhero movies. 

"Do we dare ask how many movies you both watched last night?" Lizzie asks throwing her arms around their shoulders. But they don't get the chance to reply before she's lightly slaps them enough to leave a flour handprint on their cheeks. 

They both stand there, half asleep and clearly confused at what just happened. After a moment, Riley magically tips a bag of flour over Lizzie while maintaining a completely straight face. A task none of the others can accomplish because with in seconds they're all doubled over laughing as Lizzie stands stunned. 

"Have I never warned you not to mess with Riley when they're tired?" Penelope asks through laughter.

"Clearly not." Lizzie huffs. She shakes the flour off her head which does nothing more than make a mess and leave her coughing in the middle of a cloud. Which of course makes the others laugh harder. 

Riley, now with coffee in hand, is sitting cross legged on the counter watching everything with a small smile. They don't want to leave tomorrow, but the knowledge that it won't be long before they can see everyone again is comforting.

Later into the day everyone from Belgium and the friends they've made at the Salvatore school make their way to the old mill for a goodbye party. And the Belgian students have worked out a magical cure for a hangover that works wonders that they've entrusted to the Salvatore students, so there's definitely going to be alot of drinking. 

Unlinke most parties that are thrown at the old mill, instead of everyone hanging out in their friend groups, everyone talks to each other. Singing, dancing, games. Someone even anonymously bought a bunch of Pizzas for everyone to share. 

As the night goes on and the party gets louder, Josie finds herself needing some time alone and sneaks away. But not without her soulmate noticing her abscence and looking for her.

She had a quick idea of where Josie would be, and she was right. Sitting by the dock, lost in thought.

Quietly she sits beside Josie and asks if she's okay. But the only response she gets is a shrug. She doesn't want to push too far but Josie was happy not 20 minutes ago and Penelope would be lying if she said she wasn't concerned.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" She asks.

Josie takes a deep breath and looks away from Penelope. "You're leaving tomorrow." she pauses for a moment and shakes her head like she doesn't want to believe it, "I wish we had more time."

Penelope stays quiet, unsure of what to say. And she doesn't get a chance to think of something before Josie continues.

"If I had just listened to you at Miss Mystic Falls, maybe I could've got you to stay."

Penelope gently grabs Josie's hand to get her attention. "It's my fault. I should've told you the truth sooner instead of breaking up with you." She says, the part bringing back painful memories, "Please don't blame yourself." She whispers after a moment. 

"How about we agree we were both at fault?" Josie suggests.

"Deal." 

Silence falls between them as they sit watching the ripples spread across the water, hand in hand under the stars.

After a few minutes Josie sighs, prompting Penelope to once again ask if she's okay.

"I wish we got to finish the dance." She says, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Penelope takes her hand away from Josie's for a moment and pulls out her phone. A few minutes of fiddling with something Josie can't quite see and quiet music fills the night silence. A song Josie instantly recognizes as Promise by Ben Howard, the first song she ever heard Penelope sing. 

Penelope stands up and offers her hand to Josie, along with a soft smile. "How about we finish it now?"

Josie hesitates for a second, but when she realizes Penelope is completely serious she happily accepts.

As the music builds they bow to each other before easily remembering the rehearsal.

_And meet me there_  
_Bundles of flowers_  
_We'll wait through the hours of cold_

First spin, right hand around. Already they want to ignore the no touching rule. A cruel rule for two teenagers in love.

_Winter, she'll howl at the walls_  
_Tearing down doors of time_  
_Shelter as we go_

Second spin, it feels natural. Thoughts of the rehearsal dissapear as they easily fall into step with each other. 

Gentle music plays as they spin for the third time, both hands between them so close they can feel each others heat.

As the no touching part of the dance ends, Penelope grabs Josie's hand and dramatically spins her before pulling her close. Both smiling the whole time.

Josie rests her chin on Penelope's shoulder, one arm around Penelope's neck and the other around her waist. All she wants is to be as close to Penelope as possible before she leaves again, and by the way Penelope is holding her she can tell she feels the same.

 _And promise me this_  
_You'll wait for me only_  
_Scared of the lonely arms_  
_Surface, far below these burns_

"This is far better than dancing in front of a crowd." Penelope says quietly.

"I wish this could last forever."

"One day, soon. I promise we'll have forever."

_And maybe, just maybe, I'll come home_

Josie gives up on holding back her emotions. This is the last time she'll get to see her soulmate for she doesn't even want to know how long. All rational thoughts go out the window as she pulls Penelope close, and kisses her like she's been dying to for six weeks.

It's gentle, hesitant almost, but perfect none the less.

In that moment nothing else matters. The sound of the ongoing party in the distance disapears. The thought of Penelope leaving is the last thing on either of their minds. Time stops, and everything feels alright again. Just for that moment, the world is theirs. It almost seems as if the world truly revolves around soulmates.

Eventually between soft kisses their lungs begin burning for air and they pull apart with smiles so bright they could outshine the stars. 

Josie leans her forehead against Penelopes, not ready for their to be distance between them, as tears of happiness fill her eyes.

"I've been wanting to do that for a long time." Penelope says quietly.

At that moment, one question comes to Josie's mind ruining her happiness for a moment.

"How long do you think it will be before we see each other again?"

"Much sooner than you expect." Penelope says confidently.

"You sound so sure. How?"

"Because. I am lucky enough to call you, Josette Saltzman, my soulmate. And nothing is going to keep me away from you."

"You know?" Josie asks, wide eyed barely believing what she just heard.

"Oh Jojo, I've known for a long time." 

Josie can't hold back her tears, the feeling of pure love she gets from their soulmate bond becoming too much for her. And like all other times, Penelope is quick to wipe her tears.

The only words Josie trusts herself enough to say is "I love you."

Now it's Penelope's turn to start crying. She didn't even know if Josie would talk to her while she was visiting, but there they are. The whole world seemingly on hold, as Penelope hears the words she never thought Josie would say for a long time. 

She pulls Josie in for the most safe feeling hug they've both felt since long before they broke up, and buries her face in the crook of Josie's neck. Managing to get out those three magic words that are slightly muffled by Josie's jacket. 

They stay there for a while, in their own world where everything is right just for now. Until the sound of Penelope's phone ringing interrupts them.

"That's probably Riley asking where we've disappeared to." Penelope sighs, reluctantly backing away and pulling her phone out her pocket. Josie turns back to the lake as Penelope answers.

"If you two have snuck off and are having sex against a tree I'm going to kill you for ditching us." Josie overhears from Penelope's phone and isntantly begins laughing as Penelope stutters out a few swear words and meaningless playful threats.

Josie hears laughing coming from the phone which is quickly cut off by Penelope hanging up.

"Why am I friends with them." Penelope sighs, also laughing.

"I have no idea but I love them." 

"We should probably get back to the party, before they actually kill us for ditching."

With that they head back to the party, hands swinging between them. 

They enjoy a party that goes on until 2am when Alaric finally breaks it up since the Belgian students have a somewhat early flight and need sleep along with time for their hangover cure to kick in which he's going to pretend he doesn't know about.

\- The Next Day - 

Penelope stayed in Josie's room for the night. Neither of them wanted to be apart in their last few hours. Unsurprisingly it was the best nights sleep either of them have had in nine and a half months. After spending so long sleeping in the same bed, neither of them could get used to sleeping alone again, they both thought the bed felt empty without the other. 

After spending some time just laying together, Penelope had to move and finish packing a few last things. Not a fan of it being so early, Josie opted for staying in bed while waiting for Penelope to return to say goodbye.

About an hour passes before Penelope returns. No words are said as she lays back in bed beside Josie and simply hugs her. 

"I'm gonna miss you." Josie mumbles aginst Penelope's chest.

"I think I have something that might help with that." 

Penelope rolls away from the hug and reaches into her bag and pulls out a white rectangle box and hands it over.

Josie sits up, leaning against the headboard and due to still being slightly asleep it takes her a moment to figure out which way the box opens. Inside, a brand new phone.

"I know we have magic, but this way we can talk late at night without waking anyone up, and I can text you in class. I already added my number and Riley's to the contacts. I talked to your dad and he was fine with this, he's considering allowing students here to have phones anyways." Penelope rambles, but is cut off by Josie throwing her arms around her. 

It's just a short hug before Josie peppers light kisses all over Penelope's face as they both laugh. They both ignore the sadness they can feel from each other and focus on being happy they have a chance for a proper goodbye this time. 

Some time later a quiet knock comes at the door followed by Riley peaking in.

"It's time, everyones heading outside." They say, not even attempting to hide the sadness.

Josie gets up and hugs RIley tightly. But Riley has other ideas when they lift Josie off the ground making Josie wrap her legs around their waist in a koala hug. 

"You better come back and visit soon." 

"I'll be back before you know it." Riley reassures.

"It was nice meeting you. And please keep her," Josie nods towards Penelope who's still on the bed, "out of trouble." she laughs.

"No promises but I'll try."

Nothing else can be said when Alaric and one of the Belgian teachers walks past the room and tells them they're leaving in ten minutes.

Penelope and Josie head to the front of the school in silence while Riley and MG are behind them saying their goodbyes. Once they reach the front door the last of the students her getting onto the bus, its just Riley, Penelope and a teacher left to get on. 

Just in time Hope and Lizzie make it to say goodbye. Much to everyone's surprise, Lizzie even hugs Penelope goodbye. 

Penelope looks to Josie one last time, but they know if they hug goodbye once more neither of them will be able to let go. One last small smile and Penelope walks away.

MG slips his hand into Josie's as some attempt to comfort her, even though she's hiding it well he can see Josie struggling not to cry.

Josie turns away as the bus doors close, not wanting to see Penelope leave once again. 

And before she knows it the bus is gone, along with her soulmate once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. How y'all doing? Cos I know I'm almost crying and I've had all this planned since the start.  
> Also I'm quite embarrased about how long I spent trying to work out my own time line of how long they had been broken up.


	14. You're Stuck With Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I know it's been a month since the last update. Blame writers block, it decided I was going to be even less productive in quarantine round two than the first time. I had like half of this written the day after the last update but some bits gave me HELL because my brain is an idiot lmao.

It's been two months since Penelope left the Salvatore Boarding School, again. But this time, her and Josie have spoke every day. Video calls, texting during class and ocassionally with the help of magic. 

More than once Riley has been unlucky enough to be in the room while Penelope call with Josie, and nine out of ten times they make a playful comment about how painfully cute they are. Usually that'll be hit back with either a snarky comment from Penelope or Josie saying something even cuter.

Despite being miles apart, things between them have been better than they could've ever imagined them being for a long time. They agreed that there would be no more secrets and no more lies. And after a long conversation, Josie eventually understood why Penelope done everything that she did. Much to Penelope's surprise, Josie forgave her. She will still spend forever trying to make up for hurting Josie, the last thing she ever wants is to be the reason Josie cries again. 

Riley on the otherhand, they've spent many nights up late watching movies with MG after Alaric lifted the ban on mobile phones and laptops. Sometimes Penelope, Josie, Hope and Lizzie will even join in the movie nights. 

Neither of them have admitted it to each other yet, but as well as Riley having a crush on MG, he also likes them back. And the part that entertains everyone is they are both oblivious to the others feelings despite not being very subtle about how they feel.

But something has been off with Penelope for almost a week. Josie ignored the reduced texting and just brushed it off as Penelope being sick or busy with homework for the first few days. But it got progressively worse until Penelope and Riley seemingly dropped off the face of the earth for the last two days. 

Josie has tried everything to contact Penelope and has got no reply. She's barely slept, she's been too busy thinking about things and wondering if she done something wrong to even consider sleeping. Maybe the power went out and Penelope couldn't charge her phone? But then why couldn't she use magic? So many unanswered questions. 

She attempts to bury herself in homework to avoid thinking about Penelope. It doesn't help much, she spents more time staring at a blank page. So she attempts to put headphones in and blast music to drown out the thoughts but without much success.

There's a downside to blasting music though, you can't hear anything happening around you. So Josie doesn't hear her door open or the footsteps coming up behind her.

She's completely unaware of anyone in the room, until a pair of arms drape over her shoulders along with an all too familiar face shining in the reflection of her phone.

She rips out her headphones, turns and stands up almost fast enough to knock her desk chair and Penelope over. But Penelope goes down anyways as Josie forgets her own strength and takes them both to the ground in a bone crushing hug.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Josie asks, unable to stop the extra squeal of excitement in her voice.

"If this is a bad time then I can leave." Comes a classic sarcastic reply.

Josie doesn't bother thinking of an equally sarcastic reply. The only thing she wants right now is to kiss Penelope and so she does just that. Neither of them care that they're still on the floor, although Josie is sure she's going to have bruises on her knees after the rough landing. 

"Is this real, are you really here?" Josie asks when they eventually need air. 

"This is real. I promise." An answer that makes them both unable to contain their smiles. 

Josie hugs Penelope again and hides her face in the crooke of Penelope's neck. And there they stay, until someone clears their throat by the still open door.

She looks up none other than Riley leaning against her bedroom door.

Josie tries to stand up too fast and almost falls back onto Penelope, but somehow succeeds in keeping her balance to fully stand up. And without even so much as a hello, throws herself at Riley and koala hugs them. 

"Why didn't you tell me you were visiting?"

"We're not exactly visiting." Penelope says wtih a mischievous look in her eye. 

Josie looks between them both for some sort of explanation. 

In sync they both take off their jackets to reveal shirts with the Salvatore school logo on them.

"Riley? You're here, and in one of our shirts?" MG asks outside the door, confused.

"Hey, nerd." Penelope peeks round the door, confusing MG even more.

"We kind of go here now." Riley explains.

"Belgium was nice and all, but surprisingly I learned more here than I did there." Penelope shrugs.

"So you're back, for good? Josie asks, trying not to get her hopes up incase it's a dream or a some other kind of trick.

"You're stuck with me." 

As MG drags Riley into a hug, Josie goes back to Penelope and hides her face agaisnt Penelope's neck to try and hide the fact she's almost crying with happiness.

Not long after Hope and Lizzie show up and more excited reunions follow. After a while they all find themselves sitting on the floor of Josie's room.

"So where's your dorm?" Lizzie asks Penelope and Riley.

"That one." Riley points out the door, straight across the hall to a room that's been empty for months.

"That's only a single dorm though, I thought you two would be sharing?" MG asks. Lizzie covers her ears because she knows Penelope is proably about to say something she doesn't want to hear.

"Well, I was hoping to have my old room back." Penelope turns to Josie, "If you don't mind me maybe accidentally setting our bed on fire again." She adds laughing.

"You set the bed on fire?" Riley asks, "Of course you did, I don't even know why I'm asking." They continue after quickly remembering the amount of damage Penelope can cause when getting spells wrong. 

Everyone laughs and begins recalling all the different messes they've seen Penelope cause, sometimes by accident and sometimes because a teacher or student got on her bad side. Penelope spends the whole conversation either hiding behind Josie from embarrassment or trying and failing to defend herself.

And so everything is finally right with their world, Everyone gets along and is ready to continue the rest of their school life together. 

Josie and Penelope live each day like it's their last, not wanting to waste any time together knowing how painful it is when things are wrong between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End? No, of course not! Y'all are getting an Epilogue! It might take a little longer because my original idea turned out terrible so im having to completely rethink it, but because the epilogue isn't fully necessary, its just me wanting to add a little extra, then im gonna mark this work as complete.


	15. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we're at the end and for anyone who didn't know Verus Amor is Latin for True Love. I should've probably put this at the start but oh well. My bad.

For the rest of their time at school, they all dreaded the possibility of the twins having to merge. But after years of searching, Caroline found herself turning to none other than Freya Mikaelson for help. 

With Freya, Hope, Davina and Bonnie's help they managed to end the gemini curse once and for all. It only took four of the most powerful witches on earth but they succeeded none the less. And all became close friends after it too. 

Bonnie was of course skeptical of teaming up with a Mikaelson at first, but would do anything for the twins and so agreed to help anyways. She got along with Freya from the start, but was not pleased to see Kol and Rebekah still alive. She somehow managed to restrain herself from killing them both on the spot thankfully. Although after some time she came to tolerate them both after seeing they've ditched their evil ways in favor of attempting to have a normal life.

After everything with the merge was over Josie, Penelope, Riley and MG have all wound up teaching at the Salvatore school. MG helps teach new vampires about control and their different abilities. Penelope and Josie often work together teaching magic to the yonger students. And Riley teaches supernatural history, while also occasionally helping out in spell classes if another teacher is away for any reason. MG and Riley also eventually admitted their feelings for each other and have been going strong for 4 and a half years and found out they were soulmates 2 years in.

Hope and Lizzie decided they wanted some time away from supernatural drama before making any bigger life plans and moved to New Orleans. They moved into a small apartment near the Mikaelson compound, and occasionally babysit Freya and Keelin's son Nik. A task that made them decide there definitely won't be any little Mikaelson-Saltzmans running around in their near future. 

Near the end of 2036 Penelope went to Hope with the idea of throwing a New Years party to celebrate the end of their worries about a merge and bring in a new year full of new possibilities and adventures. Two weeks of planning later everyone was gathered at the Mikaelson compound, enjoying life with no more curses or strange monsters causing trouble. 

Freya and Keelin got parenting advice from Caroline and Alaric. MG and Kol got along instantly and started causing trouble, stealing all the good food. Davina tried her hardest to ignore her thousand year old husband acting like a child as she danced with Hope, Penelope and the twins. Riley ocassionally helps the vamp chaos with some magic, stopping someone from moving so they can't protect the food and things like that.

Davina, pretended not to see whatever PDA happened between Hope and Lizzie, but after everything Hope went through when she was younger there's no denying Davina is glad to finally see her have the happiness she deserves.

Bonnie put their differences aside and spent some time teaching Rebekah simple spells, like how to trip up Kol as he's not so secretly stealing food. Rebekah took the cure only a few months before the party and so is still new to practicing magic, especially after never having the chance when she was younger and being so used to vampire abilities for over a thousand years.

The party goes on until 4am and everyone spent the night at the Mikaelson compound apart from Hope and Lizzie who lived close enough to go back to their apartment. 

They all spend the first few days of the new year together, discussing plans, practacing magic, and eating whatever leftovers MG and Kol didn't get to. 

MG and Riley stay in New Orleans a little longer for some sight seeing while Penelope and Josie head back to the school.

"Are you okay?" Josie asks Penelope as they unpack all they took with them.

"Just tired, and probably slightly hungover." 

"You know I don't believe that."

Penelope goes silent, she knows she can't hide things from Josie for long. Their soulmate bond has grown so strong they notice even the slightest change in emotion, part of that is just getting to know each other after barely being apart for six years though. And Penelope can feel the amount of concern coming from Josie, she's noticed it for almost two weeks but she was hoping Josie wouldn't bring it up yet and allow her more time to think.

"I'm not going to force it out of you, but I'm worried." Josie says, interrupting Penelope's unpacking by gently taking her hands.

Penelope continues to stay quiet and avoids looking Josie in the eye as she fiddles with their hands. One thing Penelope has always loved about Josie is she's patient, even if Penelope is having a bad day and her temper is short Josie is still so patient with her and is always somehow able to calm her down.

After a few moments Penelope tries to speak but all that comes out after some stuttering is "I love you." 

But before Josie gets to reply Penelope manages to continue, "I love you, but that's not all. I know we're soulmates and you're stuck with me forever whether you like it or not." She attempts to add some humour in to break the tension. "But I don't want to call you my girlfriend anymore." 

Penelope turns away from Josie who is confused and slightly hurt by the last sentence, but Penelope is quick to dig through her bag and pull out a small red box. 

"I don't want to call you my girlfriend anymore because I want to call you my wife. We already know we're going to be together forever, and I don't want to just be your girlfriend anymore. I love you with all of my heart and wife sounds more permenant to me. I don't care if we run away and get married in secret or if we have a big fancy wedding, as long as when the day is done I get to say Josette Saltzman is my wife." 

Penelope's nervous rambling is cut off by Josie kissing her. She instantly sinks into it and when Josie eventually pulls away she takes a breath and tries to gather her thoughts.

After a moment Penelope gets on one knee, "So, Josie. Will you marry me?" 

Josie's smile after she asks the question makes all the pain they went through breaking up and being apart worth it. Penelope had often wondered if Josie would ever love her back the way she does, even with them being soulmates but she sees all her insecurities and worries were for nothing as Josie joins her kneeling on the floor.

A barely audible "Yes" comes from Josie as she throws her arms around Penelope and almost knocks her backwards in a hug, both of them laughing the whole time. 

After a few minutes Penelope lightly nudges Josie so she can give her the ring. It's just a plain silver ring, with "Promise" engraved on the top.

"Do you remember the day I first heard you sing? You sang Promise, and that's when I fell in love with you." Penelope tells her as she traces her finger over the ring. Up until now Penelope had kept the exact moment she knew Josie was the one a secret, because this is exactly how she wanted to tell Josie of that moment.

"And it's also the song that played when we finally got to finish our dance." Josie says, still remembering that day as if it was yesterday as it's one of her favourite memories.

Penelope wipes away a few of Josie's tears and it's just then as Josie is looking at her like she's the only person to exist that she truly realizes that they will be together forever. 

Nobody knows how long forever is in the supernatural world, but she doesn't intend to waste a single moment with Josie. And based on the amount of pure love she can feel coming from Josie, she knows they're on the same page. No matter what happens in life, they will always have each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they all lived happily ever after!  
> This was my first attempt at a longer fic and not just a one shot and although there's alot of things I could've done different or better, I'm still happy with the result! And i hope everyone has enjoyed it too!  
> Also if you want to know what Posie would be like teaching yonger kids at the school, I have a one shot in the works thats gonna be my next focus of broken up Posie having to work together for the day with the younger students (including Pedro). And out the 1277 words done so far, I love it!  
> Stay safe and I'll see you around friends!


End file.
